


Percy Jackson: Son Of Hades

by Whoelijah1



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Book Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Camp Jupiter (Percy Jackson), F/M, Hades (Percy Jackson) is a Good Parent, PJO, Percy Jackson Needs a Hug, Percy Jackson son of Hades, Three Days in the Infirmary (Percy Jackson)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:13:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 50,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24052651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whoelijah1/pseuds/Whoelijah1
Summary: What if Hades fell in love with Sally Jackson instead of Poseidon, what if they had a beautiful boy together. Follow Percy through his adventures and struggles.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	1. The tour guide from Hell

AUTHORS NOTE: I didn't make the original art I just photoshopped it and made it into what I had envisioned Percy to look like in this story and I didn't write the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book franchise all rights reserved to Rick Riordan   
Percy Jackson laid on the bus seat that was on its way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek art and Myths. To Percy who was stuck on a bus filled with twenty-eight mental case kids and two teachers, it was torture.  
Percy was lying on the bus seat legs out in the isle, not that he was worried about hitting anyone. The seat in front of him was empty and so was the one behind him and the seats next to him. Kids crammed themselves up front and down back, trying to get away from him. The teachers sat with them, Mr. Burner the coolest history teacher ever that smelled like coffee was up front with Percy's roommate Grover.  
You see Mr Bruner was paralyzed from the waist down. But even that did not stop him from being the coolest teacher ever! He would show up to class with a sword and challenging them at sword point to write down every Greek mythology fact that they could think of, what god they worshiped and who was the mother of so and so. He was also Percy's favorite teacher because he did not fear him; see Percy is what most people would call an outsider.  
It wasn't Percy's fault it was just the vibe he gave off people were put off by him. He didn't have any friends the closest thing he had was his roommate and even then he didn't interact much with him except for the polite hellos and goodbyes that people would say to an outsider.   
Percys roommate was called Grover; was a skinny kid and the only one in sixth grade that had acne and the start of a wispy beard. He also had some sort of disability that excused him form PE for the rest of his life, but that did not stop him from running for the cafeteria on enchilada day. Percy tried to be friends, but they just did not seem to click. Grover seemed to find Percy creepy, once he even jokingly said that he had an aura of death around him. However, that did not stop Grover from following him at a respectable distance, Grover would deny it but Percy just had a feeling. Grover seemed to watch Percy and it was starting to creep Percy out.  
'I have no friends, why would anyone want to stalk a kid like me?' Percy thought as he sat up, as the bus was coming to a screeching halt. Kids and teachers filed out, Percy being the last one off the bus and once again, there seemed to be an invisible barrier that stopped people from getting to close to him. As soon as he walked near the group they would disperse and form around him.   
Percy silently followed the group as they shuffled into the museum. Lead by a lady who would be their tour guide she kept giving Percy a weird look. As they were walking through the museum Percy looked at all the ancient artifacts from Greek and Roman times. One thing that stood out to him was a Jet Black ring. Percy felt the urge to take it but resisted seeing as everyone was around and he didn't feel like being arrested today.   
The tour went on as normal with Mr Bruner talking about the origin story for the gods, Percy was trying to pay attention but it was hard to while being at the back of the group and having everyone talking over Mr Bruner. He herd bits and pieces of it like how Kronos ate his kids because of a prophecy, he didn't hear the middle bit but he heard the end in which the gods fought back and won. Percy decided to break away from the group and look at the cool ring again. He gave the excuse that he was going to the bathroom to the tour guide lady and she told him where it was and even offered to take him there. 'At least some people are nice to me.' Percy though while respectfully declining the offer.  
Percy eventually made it back the ring and felt an urge to take that ring and try it on. As Percy was reaching for the ring he heard footsteps and making a split second decision he grabbed the ring and put it on his middle finger and began walking away from the display as to not seem suspicious . After a few moments he realised that it was his tour guide. 'She is probably here to direct me back to my group' Percy thought while smiling at the assumed kind gesture.  
"Perseus Jackson, did you really think you could get away with that?" The tour guide asked me while she shuffled toword Percy.  
"I'm sorry I'll put the ring back and how do you know my name I haven't talked to you much less told you my name." Percy said while backing up uncomfortablely.   
"Not the ring stupid boy, they are not fools boy, They know." The tour guide said in a mysterious tone while changing, something was off about her actions she kept stomping her right leg and draging her left as if it weighed more then the other.  
"Ok now you have lost me I really don't know what your talking about." Percy said as he reached the rear wall fidgeting nervously with his ring.   
"Confess now and you will suffer less." The weird lady said to me   
"Lady I don't know what your talking about and your starting to freak me out"  
But the tour guide wouldn't let up she kept pursuing Percy who at this point was backed into a corner.  
Once Percy hit the wall she pounced saying "Times up."   
Percy did the only thing he thought of and dodged the lady who got up saying "I won't miss this time!" it was at this moment when he noticed that she didn't have normal legs one was completely made out of metal and the other one was a donkey leg.   
"What the hell lady!" Percy said while moving away from the tour guide that had thrown herself at the wall.  
The lady charged forward at Percy trying to ram him into a wall with her head. Percy did the only thing he could think of and once again dodged.   
BOOM the sound of metal smashing into a marble pillar and shattereing it. Percy stumbled back into the corner of the room looking in horror thinking only 'if that thing can smash MARBLE then I'm a dead man'   
As Percy lay in the corner of the room panting from the physical exertion and adrenaline rushing through his body. He did the only thing he could think of and closed his eyes remembering all the good times he had and smiling embracing it. He though how he was going to be leaving his mother so early. As he looked back through all the times he had he realised deep down that he didn't want to die just yet. With this buring intensity to live he lit his arms out with his eyes closed hoping that somehow that would do something.   
As Percy lay there waiting for the inevitable he realised after a couple of seconds that he wasn't dead. He looked up to see an empty hall with only one difference in the room. There was a hole in the floor big enough to swallow someone whole but small enough if you put a rug over it no one will notice for a little bit. And how does Percy know this, well it's because he dragged one of the rug that was just lying on the floor and covered it.  
Once Percy had finished cleaning up he made his way back to the group and snuck in without anyone noticing that he had even left.   
Mr. Brunner was pointing to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps someone can tell us what this picture represents?"   
Percy looked at the carving, it was Kronos eating his kids  
"Mr Jackson so nice of you to join us now could you tell us what this is ment to represent" Mr Bruner asked Percy in an expectant tone  
"Isn't it Kronos eating his kids"  
"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.   
"And he did this because Kronos was the king god, and-"  
"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.  
"Titan," Percy corrected himself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"   
"Eeew!" said one of the girls in front of Percy said.   
"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," He continued, "and the gods won."   
Some snickers from the group.  
Futher in front of me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"   
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this   
matter in real life?"  
"Busted," Grover muttered.  
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.  
At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything   
wrong. He had radar ears.  
"Um maybe if you were to teach history or mythology or perhaps become an artist" Percy rattled off   
"Very good examples, but, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld." Mr Bruner finished on a dark note   
"Well on a lighter note it time for lunch, Ms Kerr would you be so kind to take the children out to eat" Mr Bruner asked politely   
"Mr Underwood may I have a moment of your time? " Mr Bruner asked as people were filing out of the museum.   
Percy managed to find a nice spot under a set of stairs and began to eat his lunch in peace. The rest of the day went really quickly and before he knew it Percy was back in his dorm trying to study as he had to keep up his grades for him mom. His C's became B's in math and latin.  
After a long afternoon of studying he was sick of the constant looks Grover was giving him and decided to take a walk through the woods.   
"Woah it's so cool and quiet out here why don't I do this more often." Percy said to himself while wandering around looking for any wildlife.   
Eventually Percy stumbled into a clearing with a deer in it. Unsurprisingly once Percy stumbled in the deer leapt away gracefully. Percy decided that he was tired of walking around and just decided to enjoy the afternoon in a nice quiet somewhat dark place. Then he remembered that he still had the ring on and decided to get a better look at.  
Upon further investigation Percy realised that there was an engraving in the ring. Percy couldn't read it was written but felt the engravings, as soon as he did he started bleeding from a cut that wasn't on his finger before.  
Percy didn't expect what happend next the ring turned into a sword. The hilt looked like a Greek sword hilt but the blade was something else. It was jet black and radiated a faint purple light and the blade had a white outline.  
Percy looked at the blade in shock after a bit of awkward silence the blade turned back into a regular ring wrapped around his middle finger once again. He somehow knew how to make it go into ring mode and sword mode.   
Percy was really weirded out at this point, someone must have put magic mushrooms in his lunch today to make him hallucinate all the stuff that happend today. And so he went back to his room to study and have dinner.   
After eating dinner which was roast lamb and vegetables, Percy decided to ask Mr Bruner for study material like stuff that may be on the exam seeing Mr Bruners class was the only one he really cared about.  
As Percy was making his way down the hall to Mr Bruners office he heard a voice that sounded like hid latin teacher saying "He's getting dangerous my boy, you saw the hole he left I believe we might need to tell him his nature soon."   
"But sir-" the voice that sounded an awful lot like his roommate said before being cut off.  
"No we must tell him soon, did you not see, it was like the ground swallowed her whole." The other voice said with authority  
"And make sure he is aware of where to go before term ends." The voice continued.   
At this point Percy had frozen half way down the hall when he realised that they were talking about him.   
After a few moments of silence he decided to return to his dorm and sleep off this terrible day that he was having.  
The weeks passed until it was the day of exams. Percy was currently sitting in his latin class and was freaking out as he was flunking hard in his head he knew he could ace the exam but ever since that night he's been struggling, he hasn't been sleeping properly and when he does he dreams of a Rottweiler, an eagle and a horse all fighting. It always ended with the eagle going to slash the horse, the horse going to kick the Rottweiler and the Rottweiler biting the eagle. It always ended in a massacre with all 3 animals left bleeding to death.  
After the 3 hour exam Percy had finished and was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, his eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names he'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.  
"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."  
His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed him. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at Percy and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.  
Percy mumbled, "Okay, sir."  
"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."  
My eyes stung.  
Here was Percy's favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling him that he couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in him all year, now he was telling Percy that he was destined to get kicked out.  
"Right," I said, trembling.  
"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say... You're not normal, Percy. That's noth-ing to be-"  
"Thanks," Percy blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.  
"Percy-"  
But Percy was already gone.  
When it was time for Percy to go home, no one said good-bye. Well, not true Grover did say he was going to a summer camp with Mr. Burner and, he told Percy to take care. Percy nodded and prepared to ride the Grey Hound alone. Imagine Percys surprise when an elderly lady sat next to him and even began taking to him.   
"Hello young man do you mind if I sit here? " the old lady ask in a sweet tone.   
"Not at all m'am." Percy responded in a polite tone.   
"You look like a nice young man, but you seem lonely am I correct?" She asked.  
"Well yeah I guess. " Percy responded.  
"Then you should go to this camp that I know about, it is great I went there when I was younger and I had a blast, I was like you I didn't have many friends but once I went there that all changed. I had the time of my life." She said remembering fond memories.  
"Here take the camps card, its called camp half-blood, odd name but you will have the time of your life. She continued while handing him the card.  
Percy looked down at the card and it read:  
'Camp Half-Blood, Half-Blood Hill, Farm Road 3.141 Long Island, New York 11954"  
When he looked up to respond there was no-one on the bus, just him and he realised that it was incrediblely hot in the bus, as Percy was looking around he realised that they were parked on the side of the road and smoke was coming from the engine and decided to hop off the bus.   
Percy was on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from pass-ing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.  
The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.   
There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks he'd ever seen.   
These socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at Percy.  
And that's when Percy had enough of the weirdness and decided to get back on the bus. As soon as he did the bus began to reek of rotting flesh and it was like a sauna but he sat down in the bus never the less. 'Maybe if I lie down and try to get to sleep ill wake up and everything will be fine' Percy thought.  
As Percy lay there falling asleep he looked at the card and considered going. 'Maybe I should talk it over with mom' Percy thought while drifting off.  
He woke up to the sound of people getting back on the bus, it looked like he had fallen asleep for five minutes before the bus was back up and running. After sitting up and removing his legs from the isle he wondered how far away from home he was. His mind wondered to his mother.   
Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves Percy's theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma  
The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.  
I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. Percy's mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren't married. She told him he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret.   
Then one day, he disappeared in a terrible accident that left people trapped under ground. 

Lost, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost.

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.  
Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When he was young, Percy had nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.

Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along...  
Percy awoken from his thoughts as he realised he was almost home. Once he hopped off the bus he realised he was only a couple of minutes away from his apartment. As he was walking down the street he got some weird looks from people walking past but that didn't matter to him as long as he got home and saw his mom.

Percy walked into the little apartment, hoping his mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."

"Where's my mom?"

"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"

That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. Percy didn't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever Percy was home, he expected Percy to provide his gambling funds. He called that their "guy secret."  
Meaning, if Percy told his mom, he would punch Percy's lights out.  
"I don't have any cash," Percy told him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.  
Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."  
"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.   
Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.

"Fine," Percy said. He dug a wad of dollars out of his pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."

"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

Percy slammed the door to his room, which really wasn't his room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer  
Percy sat down and tried to calm himself down by counting back from one thousand in multiples of seven, it was a trick his mom taught him when he was growing up and being bullied and wanted to fight back.   
"993, 986, 979, 972, 965 952-" Percy began counting before he was interrupted by the door opening and seeing his mother. After seeing his mom he immediately got up to hug her.   
"Percy your back!" Sally said while embracing her son for the first time in months. "Tell me everything, how was your year?" She continued. After Percy told her about his year leaving out nothing. Once he mentioned the tour guide trying to kill him, Sally's face went pale. Percy then decided to show her the cool ring sword.  
"Mom can you step back for a sec?" Percy asked. Sally obviously confused did, suddenly the beautiful sword appeared. "Its weird huh I didn't know that rings could turn into swords" Percy said.  
"Percy I think it time we had a chat, its about your father, and also where you will be staying this summer." Sally said to Percy in a serious tone. "But I think we should get a move on first. Pack your stuff, were going to a summer camp."   
Percy was obviously confused but did so anyway, as he was packing he could hear Smelly Gabe and his mom arguing, eventually Sally won and came into the room telling him it was time to go. Somehow his amazing mom managed to convince the walrus to use the Camaro for a couple of days.   
They hopped in the car and when they were far enough away from the apartment Sally explained to Percy where they were going. "Percy were going to a special summer camp, its called Camp Half-Blood-" Sally was interrupted by Percy, "Hey I have heard of that some old lady on the bus gave me their card and said it was the best camp she had ever been to."   
Sally sighed in relief. "Percy what I'm about to tell you is going to seem impossible. Percy there are such things as gods, more specifically Greek gods, they exist and your father is one of them."   
Sally let that sink in. Percy was just sitting their in shock. It kind of made sense in a weird way it would explain the tour guide, the sword and the hole. After twenty minutes Percy spoke up again "Who is he?"  
"Percy I can't, I wish I could but I'm not allowed you must figure that out for yourself." Sally responded in a sad tone.  
"Ok then can you tell me about him then?" Percy asked   
"Oh Percy, he was the most amazing man in the world he offered me all the riches in the world, wealth beyond belief for only a date with me. He even offered me to be his immortal wife, he would divorce his wife for me. He was the kindest man I had met, He helped out whenever he could and he still does. He pays all our expenses." Sally responded with a nostalgic tone.  
"If he could do all that stuff then why hasn't he visited, not even ONCE has he bothered to visit us!" Percy almost yelled.   
"Percy, he couldn't, there are rules in place stopping gods from visiting their children." Sally responded calmly but Percy knew that there were traces of sadness in her voice. It also hurt her knowing her lover couldn't be with them.  
"Percy he isn't able to directly interfere with your demigod life but he can give you things to aid you, I believe your sword is evidence of that." She continued   
Percy sat there in silence mulling things over if. 'He did seem to care, he did give me this sword and I guess he does pay for things, I kinda get that he can't see us, but I don't forgive him for pretty much abandoning us.   
"If that's the case then why did you marry the Walrus?" Percy asked confused.  
"It was to hide your demigod sent, you see monsters can smell your sent when your a demigod, and to hide your smell I had to find someone with a equal if not stronger sent." Sally responded  
"Oh." was all Percy could say   
After a couple of hours of driving it started pouring down with rain and the wind became viscous. They came to a crossroads and Sally made a hard left and swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.  
"How much further until we make it there?" Percy asked   
"Only a couple of minutes dear." Sally said in a worried tone.  
She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and Percy got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" Percy asked.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."  
Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. Percy thought about the tour guide and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with the weird metal leg. His limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill him.

Then I thought about the sword my father had given me. Before I could ask mom about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and the car exploded.

Percy remember feeling weightless, like he was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

He peeled his forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Percy!" Sally shouted.

"I'm okay..."

Percy tried to shake off the daze. He wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. They'd swerved into a ditch. The driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Lightning. That was the only explanation. They'd been blasted right off the road.  
"Percy," Sally said, "we have to..." Her voice faltered.  
He looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, he saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made Percy's skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

Percy swallowed hard. "Who is—"  
"Percy," his mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

His mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. Percy tried his, stuck too. He looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" His mother told him. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"What?"

Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," Sally said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too."

Her face was pale, her eyes were sad.  
"No!" Percy shouted. "You are coming with me."  
The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward them, making grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, Percy realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head was his head. And the points that looked like horns.

"He doesn't want us," Sally told Percy. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."  
"We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you—"

"Mom! I am not leaving you!"  
Percy didn't wait for an answer and grabbed his mothers arm and dragged her out, they began to run to wards the big tree.  
Glancing back, Percy got his first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as Percy's arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

He recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told Percy.  
Percy blinked the rain out of his eyes. "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," Sally said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min—"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power.  
The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.

Percy glanced behind him again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.  
"Shhh," Sally told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.  
"Percy" Sally wispered "Run up the hill I will be right behind you"   
Quietly they got up and began running toward the pine tree. They heard a roar of anger, the Minotaur had realised where they were and was now charging straight toward them, Percy and Sally both dodged and Percy brought out his sword. They both realised that the Minotaur was now in front of them blocking the way to the camp. Sally separated and ran away while screaming at the monster. Giving Percy the opportunity to escape into the camp beyond the pine tree.  
Percy sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on him. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at Percy's chest.

The fear in Percy's stomach made him want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. He could never outrun this thing. So he held his ground, and at the last moment, he jumped to the side.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward Percy this time, toward his mother.  
They reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side Percy could see a valley, just as his mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. They'd never make it.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing Sally, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Percy.

"Run, Percy!" she told him. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

But he just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told him to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.  
She caught my eyes.  
Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around his mother's neck, and she dissolved before his eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply gone.

"No!"

Anger replaced fear. Newfound strength burned in Percy's limbs   
Percy stripped off his red rain jacket.

"Hey!" Percy screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward Percy, shaking his meaty fists.

Percy had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. He put his back to the big pine tree and waved the red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking he would jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen like that.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way he tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

Percy's legs tensed. He couldn't jump sideways, so he leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck. And stabbing his sword into the beasts head killing it the beast turned into a weird gold dust.  
The monster was gone.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. He smelled like livestock and his knees were shaking. Percy's head felt like it was splitting open. He was weak and scared and trembling with grief he had just seen his mother vanish. He wanted to lie down and cry, but he needed answers so he started to stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. Percy was crying, calling for his mother, he had just lost the only person he cared about and now he was all alone in this crewel, unforgiving world, just as his mother had been.  
The last thing Percy remembered is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at him, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

Authors note: annnddddd were done jeez long chapter 6500 words longest I think I have written anyways hope you guys enjoyed im going to start the next chapter hopefully it wont be this long but who knows and also sorry for the long chapter I made it up in my mind that I had to finish the first chapter when Percy makes it to camp.


	2. The Claiming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy gets claimed

Authors note : I don't own shit  
Percy's Point of View  
I must've woken up multiple times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.  
When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"  
I managed to croak, "What?"  
She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"  
"What..." I mumbled, "I don't..."  
Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.  
The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.  
When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than my apartment in New York. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been nesting in it for weeks. My tongue was dry and flakey and every one of my teeth hurt.  
On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.  
My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.  
"Careful," a familiar voice said.  
Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMPHALF-BLOOD.  
"What are you doing here" I croaked out. "And why do you have goat legs. Are you like the Minotar, are you going to eat me? And where's my mom" I said as fear filled my voice while I tried to scrabble away from him  
"No Percy I am a Satyr, and I wont eat you. In fact that's the opposite of what I am meant to do, I'm your protector., I'm sorry Percy she's gone... " Grover said regret filling his voice  
"If your my protector then" I took a deep breath and continued "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN MY MOM DIED YOU WERE MENT TO PROTECT US AND NOW SHES DEAD."  
"Percy I'm so sorry, your right it is my fault if only I went with you, I'm so sorry" Grover managed to mutter out between sobs.  
I was alone in life.  
I was trying to get up to adjust myself. God did my body ache, it was like all my muscles were on fire.  
Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold a glass with the weird orange liquid in it and put the straw to my lips.  
I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies, mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies. Drinking it, my whole body felt reinvigorated. My body felt great but, my grief didn't go away, but I felt responsible for her death, I was the one who failed her not anyone else just me.  
Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.  
"Was it good?" Grover asked.  
I nodded. It tasted like my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies the undisputed best cookies in the universe.  
"Can you leave I need some time to think..." I trailed off.  
"Yeah sure just shout when your ready to check things out, someone will come running." Grover responded in a kind tone  
I felt horrible, I just blamed my moms death on the guy who I didn't know that well and who technically didn't do anything, but then again he didn't do anything, not even warned me or anything.  
After a an hour, I decided to call for Grover.  
"Hey Grover " I shout and hear the trotting of hooves on the hard wooden floor.  
"Yeah?" He responds gingerly.  
"Where do I go now?" I ask  
He doesn't respond and just looks at me, indicates to follow him and starts to walk off.  
"Come, Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."  
The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.  
As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.  
We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.  
Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.  
The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.  
"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron... ."  
He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.  
First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.  
"Mr. Brunner!" I stated in shock.  
The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.  
"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."  
He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."  
"Uh, thank you sir." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.  
"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.  
She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."  
Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."  
She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.  
She only said to me, "You drool when you sleep."  
Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.  
"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?".  
"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."  
"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D does that stand for something?"  
Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."  
"Oh. Right. Sorry sir."  
"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."  
"House call?"  
"My year at YancyAcademy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."  
I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.  
"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.  
Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."  
"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"  
"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.  
"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.  
"I'm afraid not sir" I said.  
"Well at least one of you demigods knows some manors" He responded in a annoyed tone and got back to his game  
'If he referred to me as a demigod in the way that he did, it makes it seem like I was inferior to him. So he must be a god, now which God likes alcohol and starts with a D. Stupid question probably a lot of gods like alcohol but he seems to be more than familiar with alcohol and the god of wines name is..." I thought  
"Dionysus... is that you name, Mr D sir?" I questioned.  
"Hmm this one is smarter then he seems Chiron, to answer your question boy. Yes I am Dionysus god of madness and wine." He responded in a nonchalant tone  
Definitely someone not to mess with if he was the god of madness.  
"Well my boy it seems my classes have paid off, not many recognise Mr D so soon." Chiron said in a somewhat proud tone.  
"Anyway back to more important matters, Pinochle, boy did you know that Pinochle is one of the greatest games of all time, right up there with Gladiator fights and Pac Man. I like to call it the trio of terror, not for any reason in particular just alliteration" Mr D explained  
"Um ok" was the only thing I could think to say.  
"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."  
Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."  
He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.  
"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.  
Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."  
Then Chiron rose from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached..  
I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion.  
"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."  
Once I got over the fact that my former Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.  
We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers waved and said "Hello". But they seemed put off by me for some reason, they gave me the same look I got from kids at Yancy.  
Chiron notice the looks and said "Don't worry my boy they will just take some time getting used to you it happens with everyone"  
This made me a little happier, at least maybe I'll be able to make some friends.  
Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMPHALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. The way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.  
I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized-four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.  
"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.  
He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."  
"Somebody lives there?"  
"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."  
I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.  
"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."  
We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe  
Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."  
He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.  
I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.  
"Will Grover be ok?" I asked  
Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... ."  
"How old is he?"  
"Oh, twenty-eight."  
"What! And he's in sixth grade?"  
"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."  
"That's horrible."  
"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."  
"What happened the first time?"  
Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"  
But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea-a tiny, hopeful fire-started forming in my mind.  
"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real."  
"Yes, child?"  
"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"  
Chiron's expression darkened.  
"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now until we know more I urge you to put that out of your mind."  
I didn't responded I just kept walking.  
As we were walking past the bathrooms Chiron looked at his watch.  
"Look at the time I believe it is time for the archery class, stay here Percy I will get someone to take you for the rest of the tour." Chiron said while running off to get a camper to show him around.  
About 30 seconds after Chiron left three mean looking, tall, buff girls came out of seemingly nowhere and began interrogating me  
"So your the new kid huh? I'm Clarisse and you are?" The tallest and most mean looking one asked.  
"Percy Jackson"  
"Bit more scrawny then I expected, gods I hope your not a son of Ares. Did you know your really creepy kid? Your a bit of a freak." The one now named Clarisse mocked  
I knew they were trying to get a response, but I have dealt with this for long enough to know just to ignore them. Half the time your fine the other you get your ass beat.  
"No response huh, guess we got another pussy." one of the girls said  
"Hahahaha I like that let's call him Prissy." Clarisse said while laughing menacingly  
"Alright then I guess it's swirly time then!" Clarisse said in a happy tone.  
My mind was now switched off and it went into fight or flight mode.  
I summoned my sword and pointed it at them. "Try me" I said in the darkest tone I could muster.  
It seemed to work as they backed off and retreated to somewhere. "Next time Prissy, next time." Clarisse said threateningly  
I turned my sword back into its ring form  
"Woah no-ones been able to stand up to Clarisse on their first day." the Annabeth girl said in an amazed tone  
I ignored her and went to lean on the bathroom in the shadows. Focusing on my ring and not the girl that was clearly trying to get my attention.  
"Is this how you treat all your tour guides?" Annabeth asked clearly annoyed.  
"Last tour guide I had tried to kill me like 3 weeks ago." I respond in a monotone voice  
"Well that doesn't mean you should treat me like I tried to rip your throat out" she said clearly pissed off.  
I just ignored her and said simply "Are you going to take me around or what?"  
"Fine" she said clearly annoyed with me just brushing her off.  
She took me around and explained things that I didn't ask her to explain, showed me where everything was the Pegasus stables, the lake, Zues' Fist, the arena, the archery range and finally we made it to the cabins.  
"I reside in cabin 6, if you ever have a question about anything ask me or one of my siblings" she said in a someonewhat friendly tone  
"And your godly parent would be? "  
"Athena obviously." She said it like it was obvious, and in some respects it was but then if your brought into a world you know next to nothing about then how are you ment to know who people's parents are.  
"Your lucky you know" She said to me clearly pissed  
"What am I lucky that my mom died?" I respond with an icy tone.  
"Oh gods, I'm sorry. I didn't-" She tried to apologize.  
"Just stop talking please just point me where I will be staying." I say in a tone that would freeze hell over.  
She points to the largest, oldest and most worn-looking of the cabins. It was brown and wooden.  
I walk out front to be greater by a tall sandy blonde haired boy with blue eyes and a wicked looking scar that went down from the bottom of his right eye to his jawline. He smiled at me and welcomed me to the cabin.  
"Welcome newbie I'm Luke nice to meet you Percy I would presume? Are you confimed or unclaimed?" He said in a friendly tone.  
"Unclaimed"  
"Oh man that sucks. Well I'm Luke son of Hermes and concealer of the Hermes cabin as well as camp leader." He said in a positive tone  
I just looked at him waiting for him to take me into the cabin.  
"Ok then let's get you settled in." He said while taking me through the cabin, explaining all the things involved with being in the cabin, he told me about offering our food to the gods, he explained to me how capture the flag worked and when it was held and finally he told me about the tests that I would be put through to see if my abilitys match any god's in case I was there kid and as he put it 'forgot' about us. And finally he chucked me a sleeping bag and some toiletries and told me to find a spot that wasn't taken.  
"Alright Percy meet me in the arena in 5 and I'll teach you along with the rest of the Hermes cabin some sword fighting." Luke said while leaving the cabin  
I quickly made my way to the arena to see I was the second one there Luke was the only other person there.  
"Hey Percy want me to teach you some moves?" He asked  
I didn't see a point in not getting some practice in seeing as I had like no sword fighting experience and would need a little to stay alive on Friday.  
I summoned my sword and hopped down to see him staring at the blade.  
"that's st-" He cut himself off  
He came over showed me a stance and told me to hold my sword in an attacking position.  
"Perce this is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique.  
Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," He'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade.  
He told me he was going to demonstrate a disarm-ing technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so  
that he had no choice but to drop his  
weapon. "This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."  
He demonstrated the move on me in  
slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.  
"Now in real time," he said, after I'd  
retrieved my weapon. "Ready, Percy?"  
I nodded, and Luke came after me.  
Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.  
The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured.  
What the hell why not?  
I tried the disarming maneuver.  
My blade hit the base of Luke's and I  
twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust. Clang. Luke's sword rattled against the stones.  
The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.  
The other campers who had gathered around at this point were silent.  
I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."  
For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak. "By the gods Percy why are you sorry that was amazing!"  
TIME SKIP TO FRIDAY  
Well after a week of testing I got my results back and they have no clue, my sword fighting is decent enough for a beginner. I was half decent a forging stuff I could make basic stuff but I wasnt the best at it. I was horrible at foot racing, I couldn't canoe for the life of me and the same went with swimming. I was half decent at archery, heck I even made a friend from it in Micheal Yew from the Apollo cabin. I was absolutely destroyed in wrestling, every time I would step in the ring Clarisse would destroy me and once even wispered "there's more where that came from" in my ear. I was decent at ancient Greek but I didn't really like the teacher who was Annabeth after our rough start. I was no good at taking care of the strawberry fields.  
After a morning of archery and Greek, I decided to hang out with Micheal, he was pretty cool, he knew what I was going through his mom also died on the way to camp and he hasn't been out since except for trips with camp. We would just hang out at the archery range for hours and I had nothing better to do most of the time so I joined him and he helped me with my aim and form.  
"Hey Percy who do you think your dad is?" Micheal asked curiously.  
"Honestly I don't know man I mean like I'm not particularly great at anything and I'm pretty much a total loner, the only thing I have from him is this sword." I respond honestly. While I brought the sword out.  
"Woah dude that's pretty wicked, wait dude your sword is made from Stygian Iron, only children of the underworld are able to use them without their soul being teared from their body." Micheal said to me in a somewhat fearful tone  
"So what that narrows it down to like Thantos and like all underworld god's like Hades and his kids?" I ask confused  
"Yeah but Thantos isn't really known for having kids it's quite the opposite he takes life and most of the underworld god's are either married or don't get out much. And your godly parent is a guy so that leaves, The rich one, Zagreus or Thantos and Thantos doesn't seem to get around much being literally death. So that really only leaves us with two options. And I pray for your sake it isn't the one I think it is." Michael said as if he was scared of someone overhearing.  
"I guess that makes a lot of sense then if I'm a child of the underworld it kinda makes sense that I would put an aura of death around me, I suppose it would scare people off." I say as all the dots start connecting in my head.  
"Dude do you even care that your dad might be one of the big three?" Micheal asks.  
"Nah not really." I respond honestly.  
Ok I gotta help the Apollo cabin set up I'll talk to you after the game." he says while hurrying to his cabin.  
After a minute or so of pondering over my whole who is my dad situation, I decided to head back to the cabin to begin preperations.  
After picking a suitable set of armor Luke called me over and told me to ask Annabeth where I would be positioned in the battle, then he just booted me out of the cabin.  
I knocked on the door and a blonde dude with grey eyes opened it and asked what I needed, I told him I was sent over by Luke and needed to talk to Annabeth. He left for a second and a minute later Annabeth popped out.  
"What do you want?" she asked  
"Luke told me to ask you where I will be in capture the flag tonight." I explain  
"You'll be on border patrol." she responded and went in her cabin.  
I nodded and went back to my cabin to tell Luke. On the way back I saw Michael and decided to say hi.  
"Hey Micheal"  
"Percy what's up?" he asks  
"Not much man just learned where I'll be tonight." I respond  
"Nice" he responds "Anyway I gotta get going to archery I'll catch you up there if you got a free right?"  
"Yeah for sure man" I say while fist bumping him and walking back to my cabin.  
I head back to the cabin and told Luke that I was on border patrol.  
"That's good for a newbie almost no one messes with border patrol just because there's no point." he explains to me  
"Ok cool anyways I gotta head to the archery range." I say brushing him off  
I practically run to the archery range to meet up with Micheal. Once I get there I see he's helping some of his younger siblings who aren't as proficient at a bow then him.  
"Hey Micheal what's up man?" I ask  
"Yeah nothing much man." he responds "Wanna have a bit of a contest after lunch?"  
"I'm down." I respond as the conch is blown signaling lunch.  
We both started walking down to the pavilion, talking about stuff, somehow I forgot to mention what annabeth said to me on my first day and Micheal lost it.  
"I hope that bitch enjoys talking in rhymes for the rest of the week." He said hate clearly filling his voice.  
"Nah man don't worry about it she was just being stupid." I say to him  
We eventually made it to the dining pavilion and had to go our separate way. He went to the Apollo table and I to the Hermes. I sat down and grabbed some grub but not before heading to the fire to sacrifice my food to the gods of the underworld just in case I was one of there kids.  
After a fun lunch with me talking to Travis and Conner about pranks, I decided I had better head out. "Sorry boys but I gotta go, I gotta win a contest."  
I got along pretty well with the Stoll brothers we talked a lot late night, most of the time I couldn't sleep otherwise I get nightmares about mom and some weird ones about an ancient voice trying to take me somewhere. We liked to talk about their pranks on the Demeter cabin and Aphrodite cabin.  
I began to make my way to the Archery range, I noticed no one was their yet and decided to get some practice in before the competition. I knew I was gonna loose but I was fine with that, if it gave me a reason to not think about mom I was fine with it.  
After 10 minutes of practice Micheal finally showed up.  
"Well well, look who decided to show up, to bad I though it was going to be an easy win. " I said in a jokey tone  
"You wish I didn't show up because you know I'm gonna lay a beating down on your ass." He shot back  
We both started laughing and fist bumped.  
"All right let's get this thing started." Micheal says  
We both draw an arrow take aim and fire. He gets a bull's-eye and my arrow lands in the red circle. This goes on to the point where I have about 1 bull's-eye and he has about 8 with him only missing once while most of mine landed in the red or blue circles.  
"Last shot" He reminds me  
I pray to all the archery gods and goddesses that I get a bulls eye so I don't seem like a total disaster. I close my eyes and let go. Voom. The arrow releases and flies through the air and I hear a thump, I open my eyes and see it landed in the centre of the bulls eye. I practically jump for joy.  
"Yes thank you god's and goddesses of archery. You are so getting a sacrifice tonight." I praise  
"Well it seems your not completely hopeless at archery, but I still win newbie." Micheal states pointing at his target who had 9 bull's-eyes.  
"Oh well at least I had some fun." I respond  
"Alright let's get to the armoury and get suited up it's almost time for capture the flag.  
We walk to the armoury taking about which team was going to win. We eventually had to part ways and say our goodbyes.  
I made it back to the Hermes cabin when Luke came out saying  
"There you are, come one let's get moving!"  
He hurried me along, got me fitted out in armour and a sheild. Once that was done I was sent to the border and told to hold my ground.  
"Just a little warning, watch out for Clarisse she has an electrified spear, a gift from her dad."  
After about 30 minutes of waiting I just sat down and started playing with my sword, swinging it turning it into its ring then throwing it into the air and turning it into a sword, heck I even threw it into the river by accident and then a minute later it reappeared around my finger. So thats good to know that I can never loose my badass magic sword.  
After a while I heard rustling in the bushes, I turned to see Clarisse and two of her goons. All looked heaps tougher then me and armed to the teeth. There was no way I was beating all of them.  
"Look what we have here, Prissy." Clarisse said  
"I don't have the flag it's that way" I said pointing in the direction of the flag.  
"Oh we don't want about the flag, we want the kid who humiliated the Ares cabin." She said in an evil tone  
I prepared myself for their attack sheild ready and sword out.  
"Cream the punk" Clarisse screamed. And they all charged forward.  
Swords were flying at me left and right I had to jump back to dodge Clarisses spear, I didn't even want my sheild to be touched by that thing, because the metal should carry the current and zap me.  
One of the Ares boys rushed me and my the ancient part of my brain took over. He swung his sword I parried with my sheild and disarmed him and slammed into him with my sheild, knocking him out.  
The next one came up and started thrusting his spear at me. He wasn't as coordinateed as the other guy and I simply rammed into him with my sheild, he dropped to the floor, I picked up his spear and threw it at Clarisse who dodged.  
"Stop sending your goons and fight me yourself or am I to scary for you?" I say mockingly.  
"Prepare to die punk!" she screamed raising her spear to the sky, suddenly a lightning bolt hit it and the spear was completely electrified. She charged at me at a pace that I didn't think she was capable of.  
I didn't have enough time to dodge, but if I took that hit I was a goner. By the time I realised she was about to hit me it was to late, but I did manage to block the hit with my sheild but unfortunately I still got shocked.  
I fell to the ground in literal shock, twitching and writhing in pain. After about 30 seconds I managed to calm down and attempted to stand up, only to fall down again. I could see Clarisse picking up her brothers then noticing I was still conscious and I began to stand up, she put them down and picked her spear up again  
"That desperate for another beating huh Jackson?" Clarisse sneered  
I got up and steadied myself preparing for the worst.  
She charged at me and I prepared to either dodge, parry or die.  
I decided to dodge and jumped to the left. She charged past and I sliced her back armour. She screamed in pain.  
"Jackson you bastard, I hope you and your mother rot in the fields of punishment, she deserved what she got" She screamed pain and rage filling her voice.  
I stopped. I didn't care if she insulted me but she had the gull to insult my mom. I didn't care who she was I was going to teach her a lesson.  
Using all the rage I had in me I charged at her and sliced at her armoured parts of her body only giving her small cuts but it seemed like I was stabbing her in the gut or something, so much for war god's daughter she began begging for mercy. It got to the point where she just stopped responding. At this point I noticed that she wasn't even responding physicaly to the swipes.  
I slapped her really had to make sure she wasn't faking it. No response. I check her pulse. No response. I began freaking out. I somehow just killed her. I wished I hadn't and if I could take back whatever I did to kill her I would. I felt a tug in my gut and after a second Clarisse breathed in deeply. She had somehow came back to life.  
"Jackson what did you do, one minute I was up here the next, a man on a throne of precious gems and gold was there looking at me smiling and just said "its your lucky day" and I was back here." Clarisse asked really confused. I got off her and helped her up and explained to her that I didn't know but I was sorry for what I did.  
Suddenly we heard yelling, elated screams, and we saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted  
high. He was flanked by a couple of  
Hermes guys covering his retreat, and Micheal and a other few Apollos behind them, fight-ing off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse. "A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."  
They staggered after Luke, but it was already to late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver.  
The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.  
The game was over. We'd won.  
I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."  
I looked, but she wasn't there. "Where the heck did you learn to fight  
like that?" she asked.  
The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.  
I felt myself getting angry.  
I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. I could have died."  
Annabeth shrugged."I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."  
"A plan to get me fucking killed."  
"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but," She shrugged. "You didn't need help."  
She then noticed Clarisse looking completely healed. "But didn't you just fight her and wasn't she screaming in terrible pain?"  
"Yeah but I kinda healed her or something"  
Annabeth called Clarisse over and began asking questions like 'Weren't you just in terrible pain?" and "why do you look like your in perfect health?"  
Clarisse retold how one second she's with a man on a throne of precious gems and gold says to her "It's your lucky day" and the next second she's back here with me on top of her.  
"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want..." she paused " I assumed it would be Zeus..."  
Before I could ask what she meant, I  
heard a canine growl. A howl that ripped through the forest.  
The campers' cheering died instantly.  
Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"  
Annabeth drew her sword.  
There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.  
It was looking straight at me.  
Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"  
She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. And the hound was in front of me only about 9 feat away.  
I just stood there and started at the hound in its eyes and got the tugging in my gut again and suddenly what seemed like an earthquake happend and the ground split in two, trees began shaking and the beast just fell in the void that grew ever wide. Then suddenly it stopped and the ground slammed back together.  
Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.  
"Di immortales!" Annabeth said.  
"That's was a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment."  
"Someone summoned it, someone in the camp." Chiron said.  
Then everyone looked at something  
above my head.  
"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing.  
By the time I looked up, the sign was  
already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of white light, spinning and gleaming. A two-tipped spear: a septer.  
"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is not good."  
"It is determined," Chiron announced.  
All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.  
"My father?" I asked.  
"Hades" Chiron said  
"The Rich One. The Silent One. The Hospitable One. God of the Dead. God of Riches and Supreme Lord of the Underworld"  
"All heil Perseus Jackson, son of the God of the Dead."  
Suddenly my clothes changed and I was wearing a black and red toga with half of the toga being crimson red and the other being black as night. Over my left shoulder I had a Cerberus shoulder guard. I also got a burning laurel wreath around my head.

Authors notes : sorry about the pictures I know it sucks but I was not gonna be able to accurately be able to describe the septer because I honestly don't know if it's a septer at all, the only reason I assumed this is bc in Greek mythology he uses a septer sometimes. But the second one I just wanted you guys to have a visual reference. Also hope y'all have had a great day or night.  
Also i know that this site doesn't support images so just google for the first one Hades symbol and it should be the one with the dot in the middle of the septer and the second image it's Zagreus from Hades the game


	3. My chat with a Mummy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy has a nice dialogue with a mummy

Authors note: I don't own anything all rights reserved.  
Apparently Camp had really dedicated workers because they built a new cabin in the span of 12 hours, bunks and all. Cabin 13 directly opposes cabin 1 in positioning.  
Cabin thirteen is windowless, made of solid obsidian, with heavy columns and torches that burn green fire and has a skull over the door, the door was pure obsidian with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds framing the door. The interior was decorated with gold silver and all diferent kinds of gemstones, there is a fire pit with a constant green flame and the beds have mahogany frames and crimson velvet blankets and pillows.  
I didn't have to share with anyone. I have plenty of room for my stuff: a spare set of clothes and a toiletry bag. Once I woke up it seems Dad left me a gift, a wallet with a debit card that had infinite money on it. There was a note explaining how it works, the gist of it is Hades owns all the banks so he has a monopoly over the money.  
I got to sit at my own new table that looked cooler then everyone else's because it was made of gold instead of stone. I got to pick all my own activities. I got to call lights out whenever I wanted to and I didn't have to listen to anyone else.  
I was absolutely miserable.  
Just when I'd started to feel accepted at least by a few, I felt that I might be a normal kid or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.  
I feel if I my dad was any other of the big three then this wouldn't be as bad, but everyone's scared of death so naturally they would be scared of me.  
Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the God of the Dead; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.  
The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks and the hellhound in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.  
"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."  
Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she would look at me with this livid look, as if she wanted to rip me in half.  
After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Hades? ... Dirty rotten ... Gotta make a plan ..."  
Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for beating her and the Ares cabin. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.  
I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.  
BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER  
FREAK CAR ACCIDENT  
BY EILEEN SMYTHE  
Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.  
Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.  
Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.  
Police would not say whether Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.  
The phone number was circled in black marker.  
I wadded up the paper and threw it into the fireplace, watching it burn to ashes, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.  
"Lights out," I told myself miserably.  
That night, I had my worst dream yet.  
I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.  
About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. They both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.  
I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.  
Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.  
The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.  
I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!  
The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.  
Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down!  
The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.  
I woke up, sure I was falling.  
I was still in bed in cabin thirteen. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.  
I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.  
"Come in?"  
Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."  
"What for?"  
"I'd better let him tell you."  
Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.  
For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Hades, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D going to deliver the verdict.  
Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.  
"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."  
I pointed at the storm. "What the hell is that, then?"  
He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."  
We continued the treck to the big house in silence.  
Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.  
"Well, well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "If it isn't our little celebrity."  
I waited.  
"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to praise you, mortal, just because old Death Breath is your father."  
A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.  
"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.  
Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.  
"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."  
"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.  
"Nonsense," Dionysus said.  
"Mr. D" Chiron warned.  
"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."  
Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? I already had one of them. No. A security pass.  
He snapped his fingers.  
Suddenly Mr D started glowing and didn't stop for several seconds when the light became to bright to look at and suddenly he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.  
Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Perseus, please. And Grover."  
We did.  
Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.  
"Tell me, Perseus ," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"  
"I was scared, but at the same time I knew it couldn't cause me harm."  
"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."  
"Done ... with what?"  
"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"  
I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.  
"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what I'm ment to do."  
Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."  
Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.  
"Poseidon and Zeus" I said. "They're fighting over something valuable, something that was stolen, aren't they?".  
Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.  
Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"  
My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. And I've also been having these dreams."  
"I knew it," Grover said.  
"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.  
"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement and fear. "It must be!"  
"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your the big three are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."  
I laughed nervously. "A what?"  
"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."  
"Oh."  
"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."  
"And it's missing?"  
"Stolen," Chiron said.  
"By who?"  
"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you."  
My mouth fell open.  
"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best', 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes Poseidon convinced a human hero to take it."  
"But I have no assoc-"  
"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Hades has openly claimed you as his son he assumes Poseidon merely joined together with your father and you did their bidding. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief. "  
"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"  
Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.  
"Percy " Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."  
"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.  
How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.  
"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"  
"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along the proverbial last straw."  
"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought one of your brothers was plotting to overthrow you, then one of your brothers suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you. Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"  
"But I didn't do anything. Hades and Poseidon they didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did they?"  
Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's nor Hades' style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that and your father is so isolated that Zeus doesn't know what he plots. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon and by extension Hades return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"  
"Bad?" I guessed.  
"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."  
"Really bad," I repeated.  
"And you, Perseus Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."  
It started to rain.  
I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.  
"So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."  
"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the 'thief' return Zeus's property?"  
"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"  
"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."  
"All right just show me to the stupid Oracle and i will ask it what needs to happen, I guess its better then becoming a stupid dolphin."  
"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, we will talk more."  
Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor.  
I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.  
The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and snakes.  
I held my breath and climbed.  
The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.  
By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.  
Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.  
"What is my destiny?"  
The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.  
My fists clenched. It was an illusion made of the mist.  
Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.  
His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.  
The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.  
Finally, Eddie, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.  
The figures began to dissolve. I was too stunned to say anything, as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy.  
The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.  
I got the feeling that I wouldn't learn anything else.  
My audience with the Oracle was over.  
"Well?" Chiron asked me.  
I recited the prophecy to Chiron and Grover, Chiron studied my face. "Very well, but know this most prophecys have double meanings, try not to dwell on them. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass. "  
"Ah think Perseus," Chiron said. "If Zues and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"  
"Your not accusing my father are you? Because there are plenty of other gods that stand to gain." I retort defensively  
"And what god's would they be?" He asks back in a curious tone?  
"Any god that doesn't choose sides."  
"I suppose they are a possibility but most are far to week to have the power necessary to take out 2 of the big three." Chiron said.  
"And what of the hellhound that got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here."  
"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."  
"The only flaw in your plan is that if what your saying is true then MY OWN FATHER tried to KILL me" I respond  
"That may be to relieve suspicion of himself" Chiron responds  
"All right fine have it your way I will confront my father and what happens if he isn't the thief?"  
"Then you go and find the being that has stolen it."  
"So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."  
"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."  
"Where?"  
Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."  
"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane-"  
"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"  
I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.  
"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the God of Death. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."  
Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.  
"Okay so, I'll travel overland."  
"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."  
"Woah woah since when did he get added to this quest?" I ask  
"He is your protector he must come along. To succeed where he has failed."  
"Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"  
The air shimmered behind Chiron.  
Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.  
"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, death breath," she said. "you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."  
"Last time I checked up on our relationship, you hated me and I wasn't to far off with my feelings for you."  
"Yes but I need this and besides I always have a plan."  
"Do you want my help or not?"  
The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get.  
"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."  
Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.  
"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."  
It took me no time at all to pack I just grabbed a backpack and chucked everything I could in: A few pairs of clothes, my toothbrush, a bunch of non perishable foods like beans, nut bars, corn which I bought off Travis before I got claimed, my wallet with the debit card and some matches.  
The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas but I didn't really need them seeing as I had the credit card. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.  
Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve.  
Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green Rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him.  
We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus  
Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood a surfer dude. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.  
"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."  
I heard footsteps behind us.  
Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.  
"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."  
Annabeth blushed when Luke finally reached us.  
"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought um, maybe you could use these."  
He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.  
Luke said, "Maia!"  
White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.  
"Awesome!" Grover said.  
Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.  
I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.  
"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."  
"Listen, Percy " Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just kill some monsters for me, okay?"  
We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.  
After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."  
"Am not."  
She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.  
I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"  
He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air that would not be wise for you."  
I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want them?"  
His eyes lit up. "Me?"  
Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.  
We all hopped in the SUV and Argus began driving. He drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.  
"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."  
She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, Death Breath."  
"Remind me again why do you hate me so much?"  
"I don't hate you."  
"Could've fooled me."  
She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look, its not you, its your dad."  
She clearly didn't want to talk about it.  
"Well I don't know about what he did to you but have you ever heard the saying 'The sins of the father do not transfer to the son.'"  
"Of course I have-" she stopped clearly trying to figure a way to retort.  
Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.  
Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?  
I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.  
Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.  
The rain kept coming down.  
We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.  
The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared-core, stem, and all.  
Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.  
Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy-enchiladas.  
"What is it?" I asked.  
"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."  
But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.  
I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. There was this weird dude behind us, he kept looking at us. We stowed our backpacks. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.  
As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy."  
An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.  
It was the same lady from the bus that broke down.  
Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like the old lady, same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses.  
"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"  
"Grover what do you mean?" Annabeth asked.  
"Their the three Furies, the three worst monsters from the Underworld."  
Annabeth went pale at Grover's comment  
"No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."  
"Hey guys, are you forgetting that I'm Hades son and also I have run into one of them before and I'm still alive."  
They seemed to calm down a little at this. Until all three of the Furies began to walk towards us simultaneously which they all went white as a ghost. I simply stood up and offered them my seat.  
"Master Perseus your father wishes to have an audience with you in the underworld, make your way there as soon as possible, get off this bus immediately and you and your friends shall be spared." The main old lady said to me.  
Suddenly the guy behind us began to morph into something but we didn't have much time to see what it was.  
We followed their advise Annabeth putting on her cap and using the emergency brake, the bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him.  
We all got out as soon as we could and as soon as we did thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.  
BOOOOOM!  
The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof.  
We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.  
So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky  
yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.  
I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."  
We all walked in an uncomfortable silence for about an hour.  
"It would really suck if we died back then, aside from the fact that it would really suck for us, it would mean the quest was over. And I would loose my only chance to see the real world." Annabeth said breaking the silence.  
"God damn did you really just break the silence with our potential deaths. Did it really have to go that dark I mean I know I'm a son of hades but seriously?" I ask in a joking tone. Only for Grover to crack up laughing  
The thunderstorm had finally let up.  
The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.  
"So you haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.  
"No ... only short field trips."  
"It didn't work out for me living at  
home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home."  
She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her.  
"At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."  
If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.  
"You're pretty good with that knife" I said.  
"You think so?"  
"If you have survived that long with only using a knife then yes, you are good at using a knife"  
I couldn't see but I'm pretty sure Annabeth smiled.  
We were interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.  
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.  
"If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"  
He puffed out a few notes, but the tune sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.  
Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice sized knot on my head.  
"Ah gods why do you want to torture me." I say sarcasticly  
Annabeth and Grover start giggling at my misfortune.  
"Just you two wait you'll be next."  
"Unfortunately for you death breath we can actually see whe-" she said while proceeding to trip over.  
Grover also fell to the fate of tripping over a thing that wasn't their before. It was like something had appeared there for that split second and then disappeared.  
But I didn't linger on that thought to much because I was pissing myself laughing. "Karma's a bitch isn't she?" I managed to choke out in-between laughs.  
They both glared at me, or at least I assumed that because of the silence that suddenly had fell apon us. I'm only assuming they were glaring because I couldn't see very far in front of me.  
We eventually made it out of the dark foresty area and into a old road, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.  
We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed down gas station with a tattered billboard for a 90s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.  
It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary.  
The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.  
To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES  
GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.  
"What the heck does that say?" I asked."  
"I don't know," Annabeth said. She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was also dyslexic.  
Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium"  
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and wav-ing, as if they were about to get their picture taken.  
I crossed the street, following the smell of burgers.  
"Hey ..." Grover warned.  
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."  
"Snack bar," I said wistfully.  
"Snack bar," she agreed.  
"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."  
We ignored him.  
Once I stepped two feet inside I had to agree with the goat, I got the weirdest feeling from this place something was telling me to go back and get the hell out of dodge, but alas this may be my only opportunity for junk food. So I ignored it.  
The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover and myself the creeps. Once again I got that bad vibe that was telling me to run and don't look back.  
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"  
We stopped at the warehouse door. "Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."  
"Your nose is clogged up from the bus," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"  
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a  
vegetarian."  
"You eat cheese enchiladas and  
aluminum cans," I reminded him.  
"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These stat-ues are ... looking at me."  
I had to agree those statues felt like they were staring deep into my soul. I really didn't like this place, but it had food and I was really hungry.  
Then the door creaked open, and  
standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled.  
Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out.  
Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.  
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle  
Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"  
"They're, um, at-" Annabeth started.  
"They're dead, we're orphans." I cut her off before she could blow our cover.  
"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"  
"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost."  
"Oh my children you must be starving." The woman stated "You  
must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."  
We thanked her and went inside.  
Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus  
caravan?"  
"Always have a strategy, right?"  
"Shut up corpse breath."  
The warehouse was filled with more  
statues-people in all different poses,  
wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size.  
As soon as I walked into that warehouse I immediately stared to hear voices, all of them telling me to run and get out of here. I didn't know what was going on. So I asked Grover.  
"Hey Grover as soon as we walked in here I started hearing voices telling me to run. What does that mean?"  
Grover immediately went pale as a ghost. But before he could answer Aunty Em walked behind us.  
"Come children, have a seat while I prepare some food for you." She said while indicating to the picnic table in front of us.  
"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."  
Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."  
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.  
Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly.  
"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."  
Once she said Annabeth's name that set off red flags off in my head because we had never introduced ourselves nor had we said Annabeth's name in her presence or at all.  
I sat down reluctantly and began fidgeting with my ring to try and relax a little.  
Our hostess disappeared behind the  
snack counter and started cooking.  
Before we knew it, she'd brought us  
plastic trays heaped with double  
cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.  
At first I was a little reluctant but I couldn't handle not having any junk food. I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.  
Annabeth slurped her shake.  
Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.  
"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.  
I listened but could hear anything, but once again I heard those voices.  
"I can't hear any hissing, you might just be hearing thing Grover." Annabeth said  
"Grover I hear them again, but not hissing." I told him in a quiet tone.  
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."  
"I take vitamins, for my ears" he says  
"That's admirable," she said "but please relax."  
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head-dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a really unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, I decided to talk to our hostess to make things less awarkard.  
"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.  
"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular."  
"Much business on this road?" I ask  
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."  
My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.  
I got this sudden sense of dread and I knew we needed to get out as soon as humanly possible.  
"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."  
"You make these statues yourself?" I  
asked reluctantly.  
"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.  
Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"  
"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."  
"Percy, maybe we should get going, the ringmaster will be worried." Annabeth said with urgency in her voice  
"Such beautiful gray eyes" Aunty Em told Annabeth once again "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."  
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.  
"We really should go."  
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"  
"Yes unfortunately we must leave ma'am, thank you for the food and everything but we must leave." I say to Aunty Em  
"Oh dears please won't you stay for a photo, I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"  
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.  
"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."  
Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. We must be getting back to the ringmaster."  
Aunty Em began to undo the wrap around her head. That's when I heard it. The hissing. Under her headband there were snakes, literal snakes on her head. My brain was spinning bit something was telling me to look away or close my eyes.  
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.  
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted.  
She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.  
I immediately got my sword out and ran the other way of 'Aunty Em'. My brain raced thinking of all the Greek myths that involve people with snakes for hair, I could only think of one. Medusa. I knew I had to keep my eyes closed. I needed to protect myself, I decided to bolt into the garden or what I thought was the direction of it.  
After slamming into multiple statues I finally found a good spot where I couldn't hear much.  
I could hear Medusa screeching for us I suppose we all had similar ideas. I heard footsteps and forced my eyes shut even though they were already closed. I felt something, like the spirits of what could only be hundereads of victims of Medusa telling me that it was not her.  
"Take this" Annabeth said to me while shoving something in my hands "Only use this to look at her."  
I opened my eyes to see a big ass mirror in my arms. "What am I ment to do with this?" I ask.  
"You can't look at her directly so look at her through the mirror. You have a better chance at killing her because of your sword." She said to me before turning invisible and running off.  
I began to make my way to where all the commotion was, through the shield I could see Grover in a corner facing the wall trembling and Medusa clearly messing with him telling him to turn around. I snuck behind a couple of statues. She hasn't noticed me yet.  
I begin to make my way forward while walking backward to make sure I don't look at her directly. At this point I was in a shady spot that had a lot of broken rubble on the ground. Medusa had moved away as Grover had decided to make a mad dash out of here. And unfortunately she smelled me next. She immediately whipped her head toward me and slithered over.  
"Oh Percy did you really think I wouldn't know you were there?" She said to me in vicious tone.  
I immediately shut my eyes. My body wasn't responding how I wanted I was frozen in fear. I knew I wasn't going to get out of here. She wispered into my ear  
"Open your eyes boy, you can live here with me forever, you won't have to worry about any stupid prophecies."  
I was frozen in fear I knew what was going to happen next she was going to pry my eyes open and force me to look into her eyes. I suddenly got a tug in my gut. Then I heard this massive scraping. It sounded like stone being dragged along a stone floor. Medusa whipped her head away and screamed.  
"NO THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE THERE IS NO WAY ONCE I LOOK AT SOMEONE THEY DIE. BOY WHAY DID YOU DO." Actual fear filled Medusa's voice.  
I head a weird sound like a weird fleshy tearing sound, like someone had their arm ripped straight off. Then it happened again and again and again, it happened so many times I lost count. All the while Medusa was screaming her head off. Untill there was this big rip.  
Eventually everything went quite, then a voice called out. "Young master you can look now, the monster is gone."  
I don't know why but I felt as if I could trust the voice. So I opened my eyes and turned around to see a bloody mess. There was at least a hundred stone statues on there hands and knees bowing to me, with the body of Medusa ripped up in front of me her head had been ripped off clean and there were no snakes on her head they all had been ripped off with the stumps of the snakes still on the head.  
I dropped the mirror shattering it over the hard stone floor.  
Her head had been placed facing me but the eyes had been closed thankfully.  
"What happened?" I ask in pure confusion.  
"You called apon us lord you were in danger and we stopped that danger." One of the statues said to me.  
"Thank you" I say in a somewhat confused tone.  
"No, thank you m'lord, for you have freed us from her curse and we may finnally be sent to the underworld."  
I felt another tug in my gut and all the statues just disappeared leaving only Medusa's severed head and corpse which began to turn to dust, leaving only the head.  
"Woah how did you do that?" Annabeth asked curiously  
"Do what?"  
"Make the statues come to life then make them disappear" she responded in a obvious tone  
"Didn't you hear them talking to me?" I ask  
She just shook her head.  
"I'm not to sure, but I think I summoned the souls of the statues to possess the statues and then they killed Medusa and then bowed and thanked me for ending their curse and then they disappeared."  
"Woah" Was the only response I got from Annabeth  
After a few moments of silence Grover appears from around the corner.  
"Percy, Annabeth? Are you guys alive?" Grover said while approaching us with his eyes closed  
"Grover were over here and Percy killed her so open your eyes before you hit a wall." Annabeth called out.  
As he did he noticed us and the bald Medusa head still lying on the floor.  
As soon as he saw her head he immediately started vomiting.  
"Oh my gods did you have to do that to her?" He said inbetween vomits.  
I decided for our sake to wrap Medusa's head up so we, A) didn't accidently look in her eyes even if her eyes are closed and B) so we all didn't loose our lunches at least anymore than we already had.  
We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.  
"What are we going to do with the head?" Grover asks  
I stared at the thing. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!  
I was angry, at all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in one major fight the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.  
I got up. "I'll be back."  
"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you-"  
I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden.  
According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.  
In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.  
I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:  
The Gods  
Mount Olympus  
600th Floor,  
Empire State Building  
New York, NY  
With best wishes,  
PERCY JACKSON  
"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."  
I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!  
"I am impertinent, whatever that means." I said.  
I looked at Annabeth, daring her to  
criticize. She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."  
Authors note corner thing: hey guys sorry for not updating for so long I kinda got hella distracted I got a little bit of writers block then I decided to read Percy Jackson and the game or whatever it's called and it's long af but it's a fun ride, then I played the whole God Of War 2018 game and also like online classes and stuff so sorry. Anyways how's it been? And also review if possible I need criticism to help improvey writing. Also this probably won't be the best edited because its so long and I will miss a bunch of stuff. Also I won't be doing the whole Percy pulling Nico and Bianca out of the lotus casino because then we loose a bit of plot for titans curse and like I want to keep it close to the actual story so sorry to disappoint those who wanted more Bianca and Nico action, don't worry I do have stuff planned for them.


	4. I accidently blow up the St Louis Arch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy gets up to no good 600 feet in the air

Authors note: I dont own anything.  
We were miserable that night. We decided to camp out in the woods, roughly about one hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast food wrappers.  
We had taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We did not want to attract anything else.  
We decided to sleep in shifts, I volunteered first. As soon as Annabeth's head hit the pillow, she was out she even began snoring really loud.  
"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."  
He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes.  
"It makes me sad, Percy."  
"What does? The fact your stuck with me and bird brain over there?"  
"No. All this makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You cannot even see the stars. They have completely polluted the sky. It's a horrible time to be alive.  
I had to agree even what he was saying was true, the stars are all but gone from the night sky, something about it makes me alone, it's like we're the only thing out here in the universe.  
"Your species is clogging up the world so fast, ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."  
"Pan? The god?"  
"Yes Pan, he is the reason all satyrs want their searchers license"  
A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might have once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I had never known.  
"Tell me about the search" I ask in a rare moment of sudden emotions  
"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They have been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs go out to find the great god Pan. They scour the earth trying to find him and wake him from his slumber."  
"So, you want to be a searcher?"  
"Is the Pope Catholic? Yes of course I want to be a searcher! It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand, the statue you saw back there-"  
I gave him a sympathetic look; I know what he is has probably gone through.  
Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I will succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."  
"The first?"  
Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear and most likely die, but I will be different, I will succeed in finding Pan."  
"And your dad? You don't know what happened to him?"  
"Nope"  
"And you still want to go find Pan?" I start "Even if it means certain death? What if you do find him and you can't awaken him?"  
"I would still go, and I would find a way to wake him even if it meant death."  
There was a certainty in his voice that I could not question, he was fully dedicated to find Pan and I don't think anyone could have talked him out of it. There was suddenly a silence in the air. I wonder how Grover is able to hold such hope for a seemingly hopeless dream, was I any better.  
"How long do you think it will take us to get to the underworld?" I ask hoping to change the subject.  
"I'm not sure I don't even know where the entrance is L.A"  
"Oh, it's in DOA studios." I respond  
"Oh, how do you know that?" Grover asks curiously  
"I saw it on one of the recipts for Medusa's shipping locations or something, it seems dear old dad has been buying from Medusa."  
"Why does it not surprise me that the death god buys statues of dead people from a monster I suppose monsters support mon-" He stopped himself before he could finish.  
"Go on say it goat boy finish your sentence" I said in a venomous tone  
"Percy I'm sor- "  
"You hate me, don't you?"  
"I don't hate you it's, it's because of what happened to Thalia, you know the pine tree out front of camp."  
"N-no what happened, I know that the tree is called Thalia's tree but that's it. And what does this have to do with me?"  
"So a few years back a daughter of Zeus was born and her name was Thalia and her birth was considered an outrage because the made an oath to never sire demigod children. Later down the track I found Luke, Annabeth and Thalia on the run from monsters I told them who I was and began taking them to camp, since Zeus broke this oath, your father was furious and sent a whole army of from the, including the all three Furies, after them. I had made a few wrong turns and it took way longer then it should have, and we reached camp to late, and, and she... she died protecting us and as she lay dying, her father, Zeus turned he into a pine tree. It's all my fault I should have been a better protector."  
I didn't know what to say I just sat there in shock  
"I know you didn't know what happened. It must be awful being hated by camp for something your father did that you had no control over. And I know I am not even close to your good side, I fucked up and let you and your mom down and I probably won't ever get forgiven because I don't deserve it but I won't stop trying to make it right even if I can't."  
"Hey Percy, why don't you let me do both our shifts" Grover said suddenly while pulling out his Pan pipes.  
He then started playing a somber melody that made me really sleepy. My eyelids grew heavy and my eyes stung. It wouldn't be that bad if I left Grover to watch over us right? I soon drifted into the realm of Morpheus.  
I suddenly stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Grey creatures made entirely of mist churned around me, somehow, I knew they were the spirits of the dead. They pulled at my clothes, trying to keep me away from that pit, but somehow, I felt compelled to get closer, I wanted to see the edge.  
I felt nauseous looking down. The pit was so wide and was soaked in inky blackness. It must be bottomless, yet I felt something trying to rise from the abyss, something unfathomably evil and equally as large.  
The little hero, an amused voice echoed far below the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you shall do.   
The voice felt ancient, cold and heavy. It wrapped itself around me like a thick layer of ice.  
They have misled you boy, barter with me and I shall give you rewards beyond your imagination.  
A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment that she had died. Her face was contorted with pain, it was like the Minotaur was still trying to squeeze the life out of her. Her eyes still held the same image as before: RUN!  
I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work. Cold laughter filled the deep chasm. An invisible force pulled me forward. It wanted to drag me down there unless I stood firm.  
Help me rise boy The voice became stronger and more desperate. Bring me the bolt and strike down the treacherous god's!   
The spirits whispered around me, Awaken! The image of my mother began to fade as I began to awaken.  
Someone was shaking me. My eyes open to see daylight.  
"Well" Annabeth says "The zombie lives!"  
I was still trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of that thing around my chest.  
"How long was I out?"  
"Long enough for me to make breakie." Annabeth says while chucking bag of nacho corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring and made a new friend."  
My eyes had trouble focusing. I think I could see Grover sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something dirty and unnaturally pink on his lap. Suddenly the dirty pink thing yapped at me suspiciously. I then realized it was a poodle that someone had died pink.  
"No, he's not." Grover said  
"Are you, talking to it?"  
The poodle growled at me.  
"This it is our ticket west, so try to be nice." Grover warned.  
"You can talk to animals?"  
Grover just nodded.  
"Percy meet Gladiola, Gladiola meet Percy."  
"You can talk to animals?" I ask again still in shock. I didn't get a response, so I looked to Annabeth, figuring that she'd crack up at this practical joke that they were playing on me, but she seemed seriously.  
"Ha-ha nice joke but I'm not falling for this one, I won't say hi to the poodle." I said  
"Percy" Annabeth said "We're not joking, I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."  
The poodle growled.  
I ended up saying hi to the poodle.  
Grover explained that he had come across Gladiola in the woods and they had struck up a conversation. The poodle had ran away from its rich family who had practically torture the poor thing and posted a $200 reward for its capture. Gladiola didn't really want to go back but would do it if it meant helping Grover.  
"Uh guys are you forgetting that I have a literal infinite amount of money on my credit card?" I ask  
"Uh no you never mentioned it, woulda been nice to know before we decided to sleep in the woods instead of a nice comfy motel or hotel." Annabeth responded clearly pissed.  
"Oh yeah sorry about that I guess I never mentioned it." I said while scratching the back of my head awkwardly.  
"Ok then," Annabeth says in her best strategy voice "We figure out how we want to get to Los Angeles, and we buy tickets and then go."  
I thought about my dream, the whispering voices of the dead, the voice in the cavern and my mother. All would be waiting for me in the West.  
"No buses" I said warily  
"No" Annabeth agreed  
She pointed downhill towards the train tracks. "There's a Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola the westward train leaves at noon."  
We had spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west, through hills, over rivers past amber waves of grain. We were attacked only once, on the first night, a hellhound ambushed me when I was on the can. I'm just glad I always have my ring on me. It went down in one fowl swoop but it did break one of the stalls but I hightailed it out of there before anyone could suspect a thing. I have been on edge ever since.  
It felt like we were in a display case being watched from every direction. I tried to keep a low profile due to my name and pictures being on several East Coast news outlets.  
"Don't worry moral police could never find us" Annabeth told me but she didn't sound so sure of herself."  
I spent the day in the corner of the carriage that we were in looking out the window watching as the terrain changed around us. At one point I saw a family of centaurs with a little boy centaur hunting lunch.  
It turns out that the train only went to Denver and we would have to get off earlier then expected. There were no beds on the train so we were forced to sleep in our seats, my neck got all stiff and I could barely get to sleep thanks to Grover's constant snoring and bleating, he even shuffled around so much that his fake foot fell off, so Annabeth and myself had to fix it up before anyone noticed.  
"So," Annabeth asked me, once we had gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"  
I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the dark voice from the pit. But it bothers me so much that I told her.  
Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like your dad. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."  
"He offered my mother in trade, who could even do that? My dad, I don't think so mom said he loved her and would have just let her live without involving the minotaur." I say  
"Perhaps something far more sinister?" She offered  
I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer.  
Annabeth readjusted his cap, so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I do not care if his Kindly Ones weren't aggressive this time"  
"Hold on you I never said I would barter with him and why would I? And what do you mean this time? You mean you've run into them before? And what do you mean deceitful, heartless, and greedy?"  
Her hand crept up to her necklace. She pinched a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end of summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."  
"But he doesn't have her! Or maybe he does but that's because she's dead"  
"Sure whatever you say" Annabeth said to me clearly not believing me.  
We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.  
We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.  
Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."  
"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."  
"Sightseeing?"  
"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"  
I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, I could not let her go alone. It would be to much of a risk and I do not think I could deal with another death on my conscience.  
Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."  
The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in were not that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built which made it more boring, and Grover had his face in a bag of jellybeans.  
"Are you alright there?" I ask  
"Yeah, I'm fine it's just the underground air, it always smells like monsters. Hopefully, it doesn't mean anything." He responds  
But something feels wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.  
I needed something to take my mind off the feeling. So I did the worst possible thing that I probably could have done and asked Annabeth about architecture. She bit my and everyone else who were in the general areas ears off.  
I'd almost managed to ignore my sense of dread when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts.  
We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.  
We started going up, inside the Arch. When we hit a bump it I felt like I was going to throw up.  
"No parents?" the fat lady asked us, distracting me from my fear.  
She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue jean blimp.  
"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."  
"Oh, the poor darlings."  
The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.  
"Sonny. Is that his name?" Annabeth asks  
"No," the lady told Annabeth. Then she just smiled at me in the weirdest way possible, I was getting some bad vibes from this lady.  
At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air over a river. I was ready to get out of there.  
Annabeth seemed like she wanted to stay up there for hours because of her constant commentary about how she would have made windows bigger and designed the floor to be see through. After about 15 minutes of looking out the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes, and I was ready to get down from there so there were no complaints from me, and Grover seemed to be with me on this one, he looked like he was freaking out.  
I steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.  
The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."  
"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."  
But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Nah, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."  
Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared.  
Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.  
The fat lady smiled at me, a forked tongue flickering in-between her teeth.  
"Uh oh" I said suddenly even more terrified then I was before.  
Suddenly her Chihuahua started barking and growing at me.  
"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."  
The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.  
"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."  
Ice started forming in my stomach.  
She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were side-ways slits, like a reptile's.  
I was trapped in a confined space six hundred feet in the air with two monsters. I am dead.  
The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark soon became a roar. The Chihuahua suddenly morphed, it gained the head of a lion with a blood caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. It was clear it was a the Chimera.  
The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS-EXT. 954.  
I realized I hadn't even summoned my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge at me and rip me in two.  
The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Perseus Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"  
I almost burst out in laughter, but I need to keep it together, so I don't get eaten alive.  
"Echidna?" I say trying to hold back my laughter "As in the Australian eater?"  
As soon as I said it I knew I had just dug myself a 8 foot deep grave.  
She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"  
The Chimera charged at me attempting to rip my spine in two. Somehow, I managed to dodge jumping to the left of the creature. I just so happened to jump next to the park ranger, he was trying to rip the emergency exit open.  
I summoned my sword in an attempt to protect both myself and the ranger.  
I ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.  
Before I could attempt to behead the creature, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench that you would expect from a burning pile of rubber, and shot a column of flame straight at me.  
I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, I felt like I was about to combust.  
Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.  
'Great' I thought. 'I just blowtorched a national monument.'  
My sword glowed a faint purple in my hands, as the chimera was turning I slashed downward in an attempt to behead the foul beast.  
It was a clean slice and I went straight through its head, its lion head dropped to the floor and I was expecting the monster to turn to dust like the Minotaur, Medusa and the hellhound that I had killed, but I was sorely mistaken, if anything I managed to piss it off even more.  
The snake head turned toward me and tried to swallow me whole, just like, well a snake, but I managed to stop, drop and roll out of the way, but I had to drop my sword in the process.  
I rolled to the right, thankfully the park ranger was out of the way, and still trying to open the exit to no avail. I had just enough time to look up and see the goat head looking at me directly in my eyes. It opened its mouth and shot a fireball at me, this time I couldn't dodge it. I took a direct hit. It was so hot it made the previous fireball that I dodged seem like a slight shift in temperature. I could feel my hair singeing, my clothes catching aflame and my body felt unbelievably hot. I almost passed out from the pain alone.  
I immediately lost all motor functions and dropped to the floor.  
'This is it' I thought 'I'm going to die on top of the St Louis Arch, I haven't even kissed a girl yet much less lived life, and this is how I die, fuck life.'  
I suddenly felt the biggest tug in my life it was like I was having a stomachache while, starving, while throwing up. To say the least, I was in a lot more pain then before. The room started going cold and everything started going dark and everything went almost silent. I could faintly hear Echidna screaming.  
"WHAT IS HAPPENING? LORD ZEUS? DID WE DO SOMETHING WRONG?"  
Then everything went black, like pitch black, so dark you could not see your hand even if it was half an inch away from your face.  
I felt this orb of pure energy above me and it was just about to touch the roof.  
BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM  
The light of the sunset filled the air around me and the park ranger. I looked around seeing that Echidna and the Chimera were nothing but a pile of gold dust on the floor. I had just enough energy to grab my bag and grab the ambrosia and nectar out and eat/drink some.  
I was feeling better, enough to walk for like a minute and that's about it. I attempted to get up but fell to the ground very quickly, the ranger had gotten over his fear and helped me up. We made it to the elevator and got in before he put me down and let me rest.  
I passed out pretty quickly. The next thing I knew I was on a park bench with Annabeth and Grover arguing over what was going to happen next.  
"We need to wait for him to wake up before we move on." Annabeth argued.  
"WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW." Grover responded.  
"Guys" I weakly say "Could you please shut up!"  
"Oh, my gods Percy, sorry we will try to keep it down, quick question though are you good for travel?" Grover asked  
"What do you think? No of course I'm not." I respond  
"Percy what happened up there?" Annabeth asked  
I told them what happened with Echidna and Chimera and how I had made it down from the top.  
"Percy when you felt an orb of energy, we saw that, it looked like a black hole, then it exploded and everything went black like no one could see anything the next second the top of the Arch was gone." Annabeth explained. "But that's not the weirdest part it gravity suddenly increased a lot when everything went black, like we were barely able to breath for that split second."  
I just sat there in wonder. I didn't even know that I could make a use shadows, much less make a black hole. I wonder what else can I do with my powers?  
"First things first, food, then we head to the train station." Grover said  
We all decided to grab some food and we all were in the mood for Maccas, so we managed to make it to the closest Maccas and grabbed our food, ate it, while Grover just ate some tin cans that he had on him, and we made our way back to the train station we got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us, we soon fell asleep in our chairs, this night I was blessed without any weird dreams.  
Authors note: Kinda short chapter today sorry bout that but I have been having a bit of righters block, but I managed to pull though. Just so you know I was envisioning Blackbeard's Dark End from Jump Force.


	5. My first date gets ruined by spiders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy runs into a certain god and gets sent on his first 'DATE'

The next thing we knew it was June 14, one day since the whole blowing up the Arch thing, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the last night, when we were somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I am pretty sure that is obvious to literally everyone around us. 

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him talk to him about how the quest is going."   
"How we don't have any phones, do we?" I ask   
"No, we don't and even if we did, we couldn't use them, technology boosts our scent/signal for all monsters to smell."  
"Oh, definitely a bad idea then" I respond   
Annabeth dragged Grover and myself away from the train station, we wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at us, like a big rocky tidal wave about to crash into the city.   
Finally, we found an empty do it yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car, it obviously looked like we were gonna get up to no good.   
"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover was taking out a spray gun.   
"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"   
"I got no change on me sorry." Annabeth responds  
I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter.   
"Cheers Percy," Grover said. "Now we could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."   
"What are you talking about?"   
He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "IM'ing."   
"What instant messaging, I thought we couldn't use technology?"  
Annabeth just looked at me like I was stupid but didn't bother explaining it.  
"IM'ing is Iris Messaging, the rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."   
"Oh, cool so it’s kinda like actual IM'ing"   
"Yeah but instant messaging doesn't let you see the person face to face now does it?" Annabeth asked in a know it all kind of tone.   
Woah now that's impressive I don't even know how long its gonna take mortal technology to catch up, years, decades?   
"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?" I ask still kind of dumbfound.  
Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."   
Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.   
Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please."  
I mumbled something about being a bank or something while handing over two or three Drachmas, while bird brain and goat boy just laughed.  
She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."   
She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.   
"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.   
For a moment, nothing happened.   
Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, with Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow  
"Hey Luke" I called  
He turned; eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.  
"Percy? Is that you?" He responded, "Annabeth and Grover too, thank the god’s you guys are alright!"   
"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought-Chiron-I mean-"   
"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you?"   
"Well except for Percy blowing up the Saint Louis Arch, yeah everything's fine, what kind of issues?"   
Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement. I though my heart was going to literally leap out of my chest from all the vibrations.  
"Well there's- Wait what's that sound? Luke asked with confusion filling his voice   
"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Come on, Grover! 

"What?" Grover said. "But I wanna talk to Luk-" 

"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered. 

Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth. 

I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.  
"So, what happened?" I ask  
""There was a fight and Chiron had to deal with it. Things are tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon-Hades standoff. We're still not sure how word broke but it was probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon and Hades. Athena is backing Zeus. So in short, shit is hitting the fan." Luke explained.   
I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.   
"So what's the status?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you guys." 

I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp before being claimed, even for a few minutes, I didn't realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.   
"Oh shit, I only have a minute left so make whatever you are gonna say quick." I inform Luke  
"We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen, it had to be your dad who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him." Luke told me  
"Bro what the fuck, you can't just assume it was my dad because he's the god of the dead what if he's actually really nice, and you have no evidence, what if it was someone else? And Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly." I say defensively.   
"Sorry man and maybe what you said about the gods stealing other gods’ magic items is true but," Luke said, looking troubled. "Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible." 

We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said. 

"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never, I mean, she's like a little sister to me."   
"And before you go tell Grover that he won't fail this time, no one will end up a pine tree."  
The water suddenly turned off and I had to put the hose away, a man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.  
'Better see how they're doing' I thought to myself, as I began to walk over I began thinking about why I kept defending Hades, 'I mean I don't even know him yet I feel the need to defend him, maybe it’s because I'm permanently associated with him and I don't wanna get a bad rap just because of my dad?'   
Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?" 

"Not much," I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three's cabin's. "Come on, let's find some dinner." 

A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas  
Finally, the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?" 

I said, "We, um, want to order dinner." 

"You kids have money to pay for it?"  
"Of course, we-" I said while pulling out my card, then I was suddenly cut off as the whole restaurant started rumbling and a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.   
All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared a vicious crimson. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather-but leather that looked like, well, Caucasian human skin. 

The guy on the bike was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen he had an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. To say the least he looked kinda scary.  
As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?" 

The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.  
I was not one to turn down a free meal, even though I could have bought the restaurant a hundred times over. I thanked him for his gracious offer, and we told the waitress our orders.  
He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen. 

The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody.   
"So, your old Death Breaths kid, huh?" He asked   
"Yeah I am what's that got to do with anything?" I respond still affected by whatever was making me angry.  
Annabeth's eyes flashed me a warning. "Percy, this is-" 

The biker raised his hand. 

"S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?" 

"You're Clarisse's dad," I said. "Ares, god of war." 

Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. I heard you killed her; don't worry I know you brought her back so I'm not mad" 

"She insulted my mother." was my only response  
"I know punk, I know. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? " He said in an ominous tone "Anyway you punks must be wondering what I'm doing here, am I right?"   
"We nodded in return. The waitress came back with heaping trays of food-cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes. Ares just chucked a bag of what I assume were drachmas at her and she left in a hurry clearly trying to get away from us as soon as possible.  
"Well I have a favor to ask of you." Ares started  
"What favor could I do for a god?"   
"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. You see it's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little, date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."   
"We've already got a quest. Why should we waste time looking for a shield?" I ask  
"I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Pops sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful" He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Barnacle Beard."   
"You told him Poseidon stole the bolt?"  
"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."   
"Thanks," I grumbled. 

"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends." 

"We're doing fine on our own."  
"Yes, you certainly are but, you wouldn't want to make an enemy out of me, now would you punk? And I can tell you something about your mom." Ares said while melting his glasses, I could see why his glasses melted, his eyes were mini nuclear bomb firebombs going off, the whole restaurant started heating up from the heat of his eyes   
I knew I would just have to shut up and do what he wanted least I get blown to smithereens, and he knew something about mom?  
"Alright where is your shield?" I ask impatiently.  
"The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."   
Suddenly Ares just disappeared from sight, no noise, no flashing lights, nothing he was there one second and gone the next.  
"Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good." Grover said. 

I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared. 

Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think. 

"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget it. Let's just go get that stupid shield."   
We ate our food then left, by the time we got there the sun was sinking behind the mountains. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.   
The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.   
"So how do we get in?" I ask with the biggest of brains   
"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings. 

He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?" 

Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top. 

The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit? 

No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise. 

We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of-   
"Clothes" Annabeth said "Fresh clothes thank the gods"   
I laughed a bit at her praise   
She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. It was a good idea so I followed suit, grabbing a backpack and a good bit of clothes, my size obviously, hopping into the changing rooms and a few minutes later we came out, separately in Waterland gear from shirts to shoes we were rocking the merch without shame.  
We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. We finally found it, in front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.   
Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE! 

Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look." 

Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.  
"This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?" 

Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. 

"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder..." 

"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?" 

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing." 

"Nothing-like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?" 

Grover looked hurt but didn't say anything. I kinda felt bad saying that.  
"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there." 

"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis. 

"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace. I'll be counting on you for backup in case something goes wrong."   
Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?" 

"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, wanna come with me?" 

"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just kicked her off the moon. Her cheeks were bright as bright as the sun. 

"What's the problem, what am I not good enough for a date?" I joked. 

"Me, go with you to the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"   
"What you embarrassed about going on an abandoned ride with me?" I ask still joking but getting a self-conscious  
"Who's going to see you?" I continue my face was burning a bit. "Fine," I told her. "I'll go by myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.  
We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and who I assume was Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a trashed amusement-park ride. Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. Weird.  
I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and I rubbed the scarf against my cheek I felt something I had not ever felt before, I can’t describe it for you even if I tried but I would describe it as pure bliss, then Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic." 

"What?" 

"Just get the shield, Corpse Brain, and let's get out of here." 

The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was a type of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire. 

"Wait," Annabeth said. 

"Too late." 

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."  
Suddenly noise erupted from all around us, the sound of mechanical gear whirring filled the air.  
It was as if the whole pool was turning into one giant machine. 

Grover yelled, "Guys!" 

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.  
"Let’s boot it bird brain"  
"Agreed"   
I grabbed the shield and we ran but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down. 

"Come on!" Grover shouted. 

He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands. 

The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute, Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight..." 

"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"   
We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic spiders poured out. 

Annabeth screamed. 

It was an army of wind-up spiders: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal. 

"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Aaaaah!" 

I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.   
Annabeth and I climbed into the boat. I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream. 

"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker. 

The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe. 

Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.   
So, I tried something, I attempted to find that gut feeling that I had felt always before using my powers, I focused on one thing, getting rid of those spiders. I got an idea, it was stupid but just might work, I whipped out my sword and slammed it into the pool. Suddenly the ground split open and all the water and spiders fell into the crevasse somehow the bronze statues of cupid got loose and fell in all except one, even though they looked like they were fused to the floor.  
"Problem solved" I say while panting "I didn't think that that would take so much out of me."  
Grover and Annabeth just looked at me in shock. All the while the last cupid statue continued to count down.  
"Three, Two, One. You are now live to Mount Olympus say hi to all the gods and goddess watching" A gruff voice said the last bit about Mount Olympus.  
I gave the camera the bird and got Grover to pull us up and out of the cameras area.  
"You know you shouldn't have done that right?" Annabeth tells me   
"Well you might be right, but I thought it would be a good idea to get off on the right foot with the Olympians." I respond casually.  
Annabeth and Grover just stare at me in shock of what I had done.   
"Come on slow pokes we should probably give Ares his shield back." I tease   
We grabbed some more merch that was on one of the racks and then hopped the fence again, Grover once again taking the easy way while leaving Bird Brain and me to climb over the hard way.   
We had made it back to the diner and the war god was waiting for us in the parking lot. 

"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."   
"You knew it was a trap," I said. 

Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled black-smith was surprised when you flipped everyone off. Nice touch by the way."   
"Could we hurry it along with the formalities and just get to the reward part?" I ask while chucking the war god his shield. Ares caught it mid-air and it turned into a bulletproof vest and put it on.  
"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas." 

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS. 

I said, "Your joking, right?" 

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job." 

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to me. 

Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuff Oreos. 

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover said, giving me his best red-alert warning look.   
"Thanks a lot." I say, Ares just ignored me.  
It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers, every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd gotten expelled. 

I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us. 

Great, I thought. We'll make the papers tomorrow. 

I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER. 

"You owe me one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised me information about my mother." 

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead." 

The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?" 

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept by my old man, just a little incentive."   
I stood there just in shock staring at the ground, the world seemed to spin all around me. Ares had left just as he did before, but I wasn't paying attention to that, I was transfixed with what he had just told me, hope filled me. As I was standing there I was subconsciously tapping into my powers, the ground started to shake, people must have thought that there was an earthquake going on. As I stood there staring at the ground, I noticed that there was something moving just under the surface, then suddenly a boney had ripped through the ground, then another and another until the small parking lot was full with hands just coming out of the ground. Suddenly they ripped through the asphalt as if it were damp paper, and then there were about 12 skeletons kneeling before me.   
"We await you commands master." They all say simultaneously.  
I just stood there in shock once again, 'I could summon the dead?' I thought to myself 'Cool but this would have been useful like when I was fighting Clarisse or Echidna or really anytime.   
I managed to get over the shock relatively quickly.   
"I dismiss you" I tell them, they nod in return and begin to rip the ground open once more. The earth shakes once again but a little lighter this time.  
"Hopefully no one noticed that" I say while turning to talk to Annabeth and Grover.  
They were just standing there in shock Grover was holding Annabeth's hand and he looked like he had just pissed himself. Annabeth didn't look any better. After a couple of seconds of realization, they let go of each other blushing.   
"Aww you guys look cute together" I say mockingly   
"B-but I have a girlfriend, oh gods she’ll kill me if she finds out" Grover said nervously.   
Annabeth just blushed even harder.  
"Let’s get going guys" I tell them. They nod and we walk toward the truck that was thankfully still in one piece. We sneak in the back and close the doors behind us, the first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter. And it was meant to be dark but for some reason I could see perfectly fine.  
I noticed that there was sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for. 

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL! 

Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur. 

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?" 

He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would've helped him, but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.   
We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips. 

I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used my sword to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope. 

Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night. 

Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuff Oreos and nibbled on one half-heartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty first we got this. We could make it in plenty of time. I had almost managed to drift off to the realm of Morpheus when Annabeth tapped my shoulder.  
"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy." 

"It's chill." 

"It's just," She shuddered. "Spiders."   
"Arachne?" I guessed   
She nodded in return. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you." 

"We're a team, so we stick together." I said. "Besides, Grover did all the fancy flying." 

I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?" 

Annabeth and I laughed. 

She pulled apart an Oreo, handed me half. "In the Iris message, did Luke really say nothing?" 

I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening. "Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree." 

Grover let out a mournful bray. 

"I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."  
"Shuttup goat boy I don't care about what you have done in the past, all I care about is how people treat me in the now, and I think I'm coming around to you." I say in a playful way  
Grover started sniffling "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia, and Percy. And I couldn't even keep them safe" 

"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now." 

"Yeah," I said "It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan. And its not your fault what happened to Thalia and me." 

I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he'd fallen sleep. 

"How does he do that?" I marveled. 

"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But that was really a nice thing you told him." 

"I meant it." 

We rode in silence for the rest of the trip, eventually I felt myself slipping into Morpheus' realm. My nightmare started out as something I'd dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Percy. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil.   
Then the dream strayed from the usual. 

The next desk over had a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. She was my age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy blue eyes, and freckles across her nose. Somehow, I knew who she was. She was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. 

She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at me in frustration, and snapped, Well, Death Breath? One of us has to get out of here. 

She's right, my dream-self thought.  
The straitjacket melted off me. I fell through the class-room floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm. 

"Percy Jackson," it said. "Yes, the exchange went well, I see. "

I was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing me. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else. 

"And the boy does not suspect a thing?" it asked. 

Another voice, one I almost recognized, answered at my shoulder.  
"Not at all, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest." 

I looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible. 

"Deception upon deception, excellent" the thing in the pit mused aloud. 

"Truly, my lord, said the voice next to me, you are truly well named the Crooked One. But was the quest necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly-"

"You?" the monster said in scorn. "You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened."

"But, my lord- "

"Peace, little servant. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Hades has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hand... The boy he, is here."

"Did you summoned him, my lord? " The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense.

"No. The full force of the ancient voice's attention was now pouring over me, freezing me in place. Blast his father's blood, he is, too unpredictable. The boy brought himself here." 

"But that's... Well impossible!" the servant cried. 

"For a weakling such as you, perhaps," the voice snarled. Then its cold power turned back on me.   
"So, you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige."

The scene changed. 

I was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Grinning skeletons in Greek armor crowded around me, draping me with silk robes, wreathing my head with laurels that smoked with Chimera's fire, burning into my scalp. 

The evil voice began to laugh. "Hail, the conquering hero!"

I woke with a start.

And that’s a wrap, this was a quick chapter for me, it took about a day while most of my other chapters take anywhere from 3-10 days and I'm kinda happy with how it turned out anyways I hope you enjoyed, please remember to review I really do want to hear what you thought of the story and don't pull punches, I'm here to improve and I can't do that without your help so if you had any thoughts at all no matter what please tell me I don't mind if you want to PM me I'm always open to messages.


	6. I get sent to the shadow relm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I get sent to the shadow relm

Authors note: Uh hey guys sorry this chapter took so long, I have been a bit stressed out with school and all that, so please don't expect super frequent chapters and all that because it probably will be like a two week period between uploads, because of school and well getting in the mood to write, sometimes its easy but other times its harder to get motivated. Anyways hope you enjoy the chapter and if you have any criticisms or anything to say at all then please don't hesitate to express them. ALSO poll is still up so if you haven't voted yet, vote I wanna see you guy's opinions. :) Anyway enjoy :)  
I woke to Grover shaking me.  
"The truck has stopped moving,” He whispered "I think they're gonna check on the animals"   
"Hide" Annabeth said while putting on her cap.  
Grover dove behind some feed sacks and hope he looked like turnips. I was reacted to late, but I felt a tug in my gut and suddenly I felt cold for some reason, but I didn't move.  
The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in, but I still felt cold.   
"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.  
They didn't seem to notice me even though I was in their direct line of sight, sure I was in the shadows but still it would be obvious that I was just sitting there. Oh well if they don't notice me then that's good.  
"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then chucked the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.   
The lion roared in rage.   
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.  
The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"   
This guy is a sick bastard, I hope he gets what's coming to him soon.  
The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at me.   
I could tell it wanted to run as soon as possible and I didn't blame it I would too if I was it.   
Suddenly there was a loud knocking on the side of the trailer.   
"What do you want, Eddie?" The trucker inside with us yelled   
"Maurice? What'd ya say?" The voice outside which must've been Eddie's-shouted back  
"What are you banging for?"   
BANG, BANG, BANG.  
Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"   
Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside "Fuckin idiot" I heard him mumbling   
A second later, Annabeth appeared next to me. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. She said, "This transport business isn't legal."   
"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"   
"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth both looked at me, waiting for my lead I just rolled my eyes and gave them a 'that' look.   
Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. I whipped my sword out and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.   
The zebra bowed and leapt out of its confinements.  
Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in animal talk, it sounded like a blessing.   
Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas probably not the best idea, but we saved a zebra.   
Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"   
"Now's the best time to leave" Annabeth commented.  
"What about the other animals!" Grover responded.  
I cut the locks with my sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.   
"Good luck," I told the animals. The animals looked at me fearfully for some reason. Then after a moment the antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.   
Tourists started screaming. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos. But there we a few who tried to catch them, unfortunately for the first guy he tried to catch the lion, the lion literally just swallowed the guy ripping him into ribbons in its mouth.   
"Holy shit" I comment, Grover and Annabeth just nod in agreement.   
"I feel I don't need to ask but will the animals be okay?" I asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all-"   
"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."   
"Meaning?"   
"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."  
"Why haven't you done that for us?" I ask  
"Only works on animals" He responded.  
"So, it would only work on Percy" Annabeth said  
"Hey, fuck you I'm not an animal" I respond while getting on all fours. Grover and Annabeth just laugh at my antics.  
"Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck." Grover tells us as I hop to my feat.  
We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was easily a hundred and ten degrees, and we must've looked like deep-fried hobos, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention.   
We passed all the famous locations, the mini statue of liberty, Caesars palace, the mini Eiffel tower, I'm starting to realize that a lot of Vegas is just mini monuments, but I'm not one to judge.  
There was one thing on my mind at the moment, I was hungry, and I wanted food, now.   
"Hey guys I'm starved wanna get some food, and I'm not taking no for an answer." I inform the rest of the party.  
"Sounds good where do you wanna go?" Annabeth asked.  
"I'm thinking Maccas." I respond  
"I'm down for some Maccas." Grover responded   
"Alright then what are we waiting for?" Annabeth responds  
After about 10 minutes of searching we finally found what we were looking for, the Holy Grail of fast food, our lord and savior, McDonalds.   
I immediately lined up as soon as we entered, I don't think the cashier had ever seen a pre-teen so excited for McDonalds, I ordered 2 happy meals with one with a cheese burger and the other with nuggets, I ordered a frozen blue coke.   
I sat down and started devouring it, the last time I ate was like over 15 hours ago so to say I was starving was an understatement. Annabeth ordered pretty much the same thing and Grover only had fries and all the napkins that they gave us and then some. Once we were done, we decided to get back to searching the streets for the next part of our quest.   
We eventually found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers-lotus blossom, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure.   
The doorman greeted us with a creepy smile. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"   
We'd learned to be suspicious over the last week or so. I figured anybody could be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But something about this guy felt normal. One look at him, and you could tell. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in. Inside, we took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa."  
The whole lobby was a giant game room. And not just cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor waterslide wrapping around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games of every genera you can think of it, it was there, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.   
"Hey!" a bellhop said. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."   
I stammered, "Um, but..."   
"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, loom 420. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."   
He handed us each a green plastic credit card.   
I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously, he thought we were some millionaire's kids. "I think that you made a mistake."   
"What are you- Ohhh your making a joke, you got me kid, now go out and enjoy."  
We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. It was perfect, I could literally stay here forever.   
"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is perfect"   
"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."   
There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange.   
I threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore. When we left, I could just charge a new one at the hotel store.  
I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. In the back of my mind, some small problem kept nagging me. I'd had a dream or something. I needed to talk to my friends. But I was sure it could wait.   
I came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth and Grover had also showered and changed clothes. Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel.   
"All those stations," I told her, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"   
"It's interesting."   
"I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place."   
"Guys I'm going to check out the games in this place I'll be back whenever I get back." I tell them   
As I walk down the hall, I kept getting this nagging feeling in the back of head. But I put it out of my mind as the elevator begins its decent, I see a kid going down the waterslide, it looked so fun I can't wait to try it. As the elevator doors I realize were not at the ground floor, we had stopped. Then the doors swung open and two kids about my age hop in, one boy looking about 10ish and a girl looking about my age. I felt something tugging in my gut as they got closer. I felt that I needed to talk to them.  
"Hi" I say as they walk in.   
"Hi, my names Nico what's yours?" The boy now named Nico asked.  
"I'm Percy, nice to meet you"   
"I'm Bianca, nice to meet you too" The girl named Bianca responded.  
"So how long have you been in the casino?" I ask   
"About like a month" Nico responded   
"Oh so like some time in May or like late April?" I asked  
They looked at me funny, like I had grown a second head or something.  
"No, I think we came in early August, which was last month, its sometime in September."   
My stomach felt like it had turned to ice, but they must be messing with me.  
"Oh, ha-ha very funny, let me guess your gonna say that were still living in the 1920's?" I say in a semi sarcastic tone.  
"No of course not." Bianca says "That was like 10 years ago."   
My stomach just dropped, I realized where we were now, we were in the heart of the louts eaters den, and if they had been in here for like a month and in the real world it was like 70 years, then we still had a chance to save mom. I needed to get back to the room and get us out of here.  
I suddenly pressed the button for my floor, the two kids looked at me like I was weird once again but shrugged it off once they got off in the main floor. I heard the DING and knew that I was going back to the floor, I just hoped that they hadn't gotten to far. The doors opened up and I ran down the hall, moving as fast as possible. I finally reached our room and barged in, Grover was sitting on the couch watching National Geographic still and I heard the water running.   
"Grover we gotta go man, this place is bad news" I tell him  
"Percy what are you on about, sit down and watch some National Geographic." Grover said not believing me   
"Grover were in the Lotus eaters’ den, I was talking to people in the elevator and there younger than us and they have been here since the 1930's" I tell him  
Still not believing me Grover sat me down and told me I was probably just imagining things and that we should just watch some calming National Geographic.   
In a direct response to this I grabbed the remote and turned the tv off and snapped the remote.  
"Percy what the fuck man I was watching that." Grover asked angerly   
I quickly grabbed the closest bag to me and packed it with as much stuff as possible.   
At this point Annabeth had finished her shower and had changed into clean clothes and was watching us argue.  
"Alright that's it if your not going to cooperate then ill just take you both by force" I said while dragging them by the arms toward the door, but they kept struggling and I had to use every bit of my physical strength to get them to the door. I kept focusing on getting to the underworld we needed to save mom and the world. Then suddenly we were wrapped around by shadows and everything went dark and cold, I couldn't see in front of me and I couldn't feel anything except the cold and Annabeth and Grover's arms.   
Suddenly we were on the volcanic black sands of a beach, I immediately dropped to the floor in exhaustion, in front of us was a massive wall that must have been at least a mile tall and must have spanned forever. There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said 'YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls.  
The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Dad's door, was nowhere to be seen.   
The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANTS ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving right along. The other two were crawling.  
"What the hades Percy, how did we get here" Annabeth all but yelled   
"Where are we, where's my National Geographic?" Grover demanded  
"Well I would assume are in the underworld, as for how we got here, I don't really know, we just kinda traveled here." I said while panting heavily still on the ground.  
"What are those?" Annabeth asked   
"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," I responded "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court because it might go against them."  
"There's a court for dead people?"   
"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare-people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward-the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."   
"And do what?" Grover asked   
"Uhhh, imagine standing in a field for eternity"  
"Yikes" He responded.  
"If you think that's bad, then look at that" I said while pointing at a couple of black-robbed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. The face of the dead man looked vaguely familiar.   
"Oh, he's that preacher who made the news" Grover said.   
"Oh, yeah." Annabeth commented  
I'd seen him on TV a couple of times at the Yancy Academy dorm. He was this annoying televangelist from upstate New York who'd raised millions of dollars for orphanages and then got caught spending the money on stuff for his mansion, like gold-plated toilet seats, and an indoor putt-putt golf course. He'd died in a police chase when his "Lamborghini for the Lord" went off a cliff.   
Annabeth asked, "What're they doing to him?"   
"Special punishment from Hades, the really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Furys will set up an eternal torture for him." I inform them   
"But if he's a preacher," she said, "and he believes in a different hell."   
I shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? People see what they want to see. They're very stubborn, in that way."  
"How do you know all this?" Annabeth asked   
I shrugged not really knowing.  
"Hades' kids’ things I guess" I responded  
We got closer to the gates. There was a howling so loud it shook the ground at our feet, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.   
Then, about fifty feet in front of us, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy monster.   
I hadn't seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, it blended with whatever was behind it. Only its eyes and teeth looked solid. And it was staring straight at me.   
"Cerberus" I whispered  
The closer we got; the more visible Cerberus got. I could see both Annabeth and Grover shaking in fear, I can't judge them if I wasn't a child of Hades, I would be the exact same.   
We moved toward the Cerberus.   
It initially growled at us, but as we got closer it began to sniff the air as if smelling something enticing. When we got close enough it stopped sniffing the air realizing what the smell was and where it was coming from, it was from us, and it smelled its master.  
Cerberus bowed its mighty three heads towards us and lightly growled at us.  
"He says that he will let master's son in but the other two must remain here, Lord Hades' orders" Grover told us.  
"What no way, if Percy goes, we all go!" Annabeth says defiantly   
"Guys its ok, I'll be fine... I hope" I say jokingly.  
"Well I guess this is where we temporarily say goodbye" I say turning around to face them.   
"Good luck in there Percy, gods know you'll need it" Grover says while pulling me in a hug.  
"Thanks Goat boy"   
"Well Percy this might be it, good luck in there" Annabeth says  
Then Annabeth did something I didn't expect she gave me a kiss on the cheek.  
"Don't take that the wrong way, its just for luck."   
I didn't know what to say so I just blushed and walked toward the looming obsidian black castle in the distance.  
After a few miles of walking, I began to hear a screeching sound in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark bat like creatures: the Furies. I got the feeling they were waiting for me.  
After I passed the sixteenth paddock of dead people, I saw something, something that made me freeze in place. It was the dark cavern and chasm from my dreams. I felt something pulling me toward the crevasse, it felt similar the feeling in my dream when I wasn't in control of my body. I continued toward the edge looking down I could see nothing, but an inky blackness and I could hear something odd, it sounded like... Screaming?  
That's when I felt something pick me up, something that had talons that dug into my skin, I looked up to see the kind old lady from the bus, but she didn't look like what she looked like back then her face had shifted into a weird combination between a bat and a human. Her arms were emaciated, and her nails had turned into claws.   
"Now stay still honey, your father wants to have a chat." She hissed out.  
We flew for what seemed like miles until we reached the obsidian fortress. She gently put me down in the palace grounds in front of two giant gates that had engravings all being scenes of death. Some were from modern times, an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls-but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. Dad certainly had taste.  
Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden I'd ever seen. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies bigger than fists, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues- petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs-all smiling grotesquely.   
Yep I have heard enough story's about Persephone's garden that I knew to steer clear from all kinds of foods down here, but those pomegranates do smell really good.  
I walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above. There were gruesome tapestries depicting many a way to kill a human.   
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered me in fact it was the opposite, they bowed before me, their hollow eye sockets followed me as I walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.   
Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at me; rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.   
"Guess dad doesn't have to worry about door to door salespeople trying to sell him a vacuum" I said to myself with a little chuckle.  
My backpack suddenly weighed a ton. I couldn't figure out why. I wanted to open it, check to see if I had somehow picked up a stray bowling ball, but this wasn't the time.   
Once I reached the doors, I went to nock but a hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open and the guards stepped aside.   
The room inside looked just like in my dream, except the throne of Hades was occupied.   
Dad was the third god I'd met, but the first who really struck me as godlike.   
He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones.   
"Perseus," He said as he stepped down from his throne.  
I swallowed. Dad towered above me. He felt larger than the room they stood in. There was no doubt in my mind that what stood before me was a god.  
"Dad"   
Hades strolled toward me and rested his hand on my shoulder. "Come."  
"But my quest," I say as Hades steered me to a wooden side door.  
"There is plenty of time for you to finish your quest. You were only in the lotus casino for a day or so. Now, come."  
Hades led me to a guest bedroom. I expected a room with jewel studded walls, and a silk bed and my expectations were not let down. Everything had been diamond encrusted and or had been gold plated.  
I walked over to the bed and sat down.  
"This will be your room if you ever decide to stay down here for any period of time" Dad informed me. "If you ever need anything just find a palace guard and they will get it for you."  
"Thanks, so where to now?" I ask.  
He led me through the halls all the while giving me little facts and trivia about the underworld and death eventually, we reached the dining hall where Dad sat down at the head of a long oak table.  
"Sit and eat." He said. He gestured to his left.   
I drooled at the sight of a large buffet of food, varying from gold-leaf steaks to blue pancakes. The scent beckoned me like a sailor to a Siren's song. I wiped at my mouth and he cleared his throat.  
"Um, no thanks," I mutter.  
Dad started laughing, "They will not trap you in the Underworld, if that, is what you are afraid of. I have not put a spell on them."  
"A spell?" I ask while taking a seat near my father and digging into some pizza.  
He smirked at me as he cut into his own pancakes. "Yes, all gods can cast spells. Some easier than others. The spell to bind a person to a specific place is a rudimentary spell. One that requires, very, little effort."  
"Really? that's kinda cool." I say with a stuffed mouth. The warm, sweet, bread, melted on my tongue. Cheese and sauce landing on my lips and cheeks.  
Dad frowned. He handed me a napkin.  
I nodded and accepted the napkin as I continued to devour my pizza.   
"So," I start. "What's with the tapestries in the main hall?"  
"I find that they intimidate visitors," Dad said. "I have them dusted each morning, then hung up. They are washed weekly. Impressive, is it not?"  
"They're something" I respond. "Why do you have them hung up so often? Do you get a lot of visitors?"  
"No, but better to be prepared. Plus, I had to make an impression on you," He said as he dabbed his mouth with his napkin.  
"I'm your son," I retort.  
"So? You still need to know who holds the power here," Hades said as he bit into scrambled eggs. "The last thing I need is my son causing a riot among the spirits."  
"I don't know if I can even talk to spirits," I say  
Hades frowned. "Hmmm,"  
"Yeah,"   
"Hmm," Hades pushed his plate to the side. A ghoul servant stole it away. "Tell me about your quest."  
Percy told him everything, from Chiron's accusations, which Hades just laughed at, to visiting Medusa to the lotus casino. Hades's frown deepened as Percy told him about the pit trying to take him.  
"What was it?" I push my plate away. The servant collected his plate. "Thank you."  
"It," He said, "was Tartarus. He is inactive most centuries. Busy creating monsters and sending them up to the earth. All done with his subconscious, of course. Something must have caused him to stir, or someone."  
"What about that voice?" I ask.  
"My father sometimes gathers enough energy to speak to men, He tries to get them to let him use their bodies and cause an uprising, or trouble for the Olympians."  
"You mean Kro–"  
"Do not say his name," My father warns. "Names have power and can cause his stirring to worsen."  
"Oh, sorry," I apologize. My cheeks becoming redder and redder by the second.  
"It is of no consequence," My father says. He scooted his chair away from the table. "Come with me. I have a gift for you."  
'A gift?'   
I got up and followed my father. He led me down winding hallways, so many that my head began to spin. He opened a heavy oak door, and led Percy inside a small, cold, room. The room being decorated with various depictions of death and gemstones galore and filled with draws and cabinets.  
Dad riffled through a drawer. He pulled out a small box.  
"Here," he handed it to Percy.  
Percy grabbed the small velvet box. He inched it open; his mind racing with possibilities.  
"A ring?"  
Inside the box was a simple iron ring with a purple-greyish center with 零 carved in the center of the circle. I picked it from its silk bed and let out an involuntary 'yow' when the silver ring made contact skin. The cold metal burned my fingers until it adjusted to my body temperature. I then slipped it onto my right index finger.   
My father cleared his throat. "The ring is Stygian iron and its deadly to demigods, monsters, and humans. It can drain the energy of humans and demigods from a single scratch and it will help control and amplify your powers"  
"So, is this a special ring or is it just an item to remind me of my time down here?"  
Dad stared down at me. His eyes as heavy as stones.   
"Its special alright, with this ring you are able to more freely use your powers and resurrect the dead with a simple wave of your hand, it will amplify all ability's that you inherited from me." He said with a laugh  
"Woah, that's cool, does it have any side effects?"  
"It will make your scent stronger and you will give off an aura of fear" He replied.  
"That seems pretty cool" I say while putting on the ring  
"Now," Dad said. "I want to talk to you in my throne room."  
I followed dad throughout the hallways. I stood before my father’s throne as the Greek god sat down.  
"Perseus," He said. "How long are we going to pretend that you do not have the lightning bolt?"  
"What do you mean?" I ask genuinely confused.  
My father sighed. "Boy, do not feign ignorance with me."  
I shook my head. “I don't understand."  
My father studied me, he leaned forward. "You do not know what I am talking about?"  
"No?"  
"Check your bag, Percy,"   
I slung it off my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.  
"How-"   
'Why would Ares have this?'  
My eyes widened as realization dawned apon me.  
"Ares" I muttered. "He betrayed me,"  
"Percy–"  
"He used me." My ring growing colder, numbing my hands.  
"Percy,"   
I turned my attention to my father eyes glowing an ethereal purple. "I need to learn how to summon skeleton warriors without having an emotional breakdown."  
Dad raised an eyebrow but nodded his head.   
"You must become one with the ground and everything contained in it, once you have felt something pull, you must tug back at it and decide on the amount that you want to summon. The rest will happen on its own. With that ring it you shouldn't need to focus on the earth so much as it should do most of the work. Or just channel your power into your sword and stab it into the ground."  
I took in my surrounding as my father instructed, felt for the undead, obviously it happened instantly because we were in the underworld, where souls go after death, then I felt the tug and pulled back. Then suddenly a small army of skeleton warriors began ripping all the walls of the castle down and bowed in front of me and my father, awaiting commands.  
I surveyed the army. "Ares can't take control of them? Right?"  
"No," he said leaning his head against his hand. "You know these are only good for a distraction against Ares, right?"  
"I know."   
"Perseus," Hades said.  
"Yeah?"  
"Someone stole my helm, I am certain Ares has it, please get it back."  
"I will," I said as the shadows began to encase me. "And I'm going to make him pay."  
I appeared in behind Annabeth and Grover. "Hey guys” I say making them jump in surprise.  
"Percy are you alright?" Annabeth asked  
"Yeah, I'm fine, how did things go out here?" I respond  
"Well we didn't get eaten so that's a plus, but Grover's been freaking out pretty much the whole time"   
I give him a sympathetic look.  
"What happened in there?" Grover asked while smelling the air  
"Well dad showed me around the palace, got me some food and then gave me this sick ring, taught me how to summon skeletons and we figured out who has the bolt."   
"Who has the bolt Percy?" Annabeth asked  
"Me, Ares gave it to me when he gave me the bag." I respond  
"So, Hades didn't steal bolt?" Grover asked  
"No, in fact someone has stolen his Helm, he thinks its Ares and I have to agree." I respond, "Now we gotta get going I have a helm to get back."   
"Now the question is how are we getting out of here" I say nervously  
"WHAT? You mean you don't know how to get out of here?' Annabeth screamed  
I looked apon the sand beaches not too far from where we were currently standing and noticed a big gondolier boat with a tall elegant man in a Italian suit with beautiful brown skin and bleach blonde hair, who wasn't there when we entered the underworld.   
We approached him I got a feeling that this was Charon, because who else sails a boat down here. "Hello Godlings and Prince Perseus I am here to give you a ride back, of course not without a fee."   
My ADHD riddled brain could only think of one thing to say "Prince?"   
"Well yes young Prince, your father is the King of the Underworld is he not?"  
"I guess so, but could you not call me that it makes me feel weird" I ask   
"Of course, now hop on and pay up Godlings"   
We all gave him one drachma each and hopped on.  
"So, Perseus what did your father want?" Charon asked.  
"Uh you know just stuff about the whole quest stuff, he even gave me this sick ring, see?" I say while offering the hand that the ring is on.  
Charon went deathly pale and shuffled away from me. "That ring belonged to one of your father’s strongest demigod daughters, it is immensely powerful."   
After that we just sat in silence for the rest of the boat ride. Once we got the opposite side of the river we were suddenly in an elevator and going up, after a few seconds we were on the ground floor of some kind of studio lobby full of ghosts?   
"Welcome to DOA studios, not many enter through this entrance so consider yourselves lucky, and Lord Perseus, can you consider asking your father to give me a raise, I do need a new Italian suit." Charon asked politely  
"I'll see what I can do and uh, thanks for the ride."  
"It was my pleasure." He responded.  
After that we walked out and began making our way to, well honestly we didn't know where to go we were all exhausted from the trip down under, we eventually found a place to stay, a nice little hotel called the Farmer's Daughters Hotel, I guess Demeter or one of her children owns the hotel, because it has a statue of Demeter holding some grains of wheat and has an inscription in ancient Greek at the bottom of the statue saying Demeter.  
I payed for our rooms and we headed upstairs and dropped on our beds exhausted and just ready for sleep. I drifted off into Morpheus' realm, this night I didn't get any nightmares. It was just another dreamless night.  
I awoke to the sound of knocking at the door, at first I thought it was just Grover or Annabeth but the knocks were to violent to be theirs, it was like someone was trying to punch down the door. I got my sword out and walked to the door.  
I began to open the door slowly and cautiously with my sword by my side. I opened the door to see, no one? Instead of seeing someone, I saw a note falling to the ground. I picked it up and read it.  
'If you want to see your friends again go to Santa Monica Pier.' It read before exploding into flames.  
I needed to check up on Grover and Annabeth, hopefully they were alright. I ran to their rooms, the doors were wide open, and the rooms were vacant it was like they weren't even there. I immediately bolted downstairs and grabbed a couple of granola bars shoveled them down and grabbed some more and bolted out of the hotel.   
After about an hour of searching I finally found the rollercoasters and rides that were littered on the pier. That's when I saw them, Annabeth and Grover, both of them were either asleep or knocked out laying down on a bench, with a tall man guarding them, I immediately recognized him. Ares. He noticed me and smiled.  
"Jackson, I see you finally got here" He said in a smug tone  
"Give them back " I say boiling with anger   
"I'll make you a deal, I give you them and the helm if you win, but if I win you give me the bolt and I kill you, sound good to you?" He asked his tone rich with smugness.  
I simply summoned my sword and pointed it at him, "But first, how about a little test?" He said before snapping his fingers, and summoning a massive boar at least 10 feet tall, with tusks about 4 feet in length and boiling red eyes that practically screamed 'I'm going to fucking massacre you'  
The boar charged at me with speeds that couldn't be possible for an animal of its size. I managed to dodge just in time for it to break through the railing falling to the beach below, taking half the railing of the pier with it. I see that it landed on its back somehow and was trapped in the railing for the moment. It was lying on its stomach trapped underneath all the railings that had wrapped themselves around the boar.  
I only had a brief window of time before the beast freed itself from the railings, so I had two options fight the boar, or fight Ares. I chose the former and did one of the stupidest things I could have done in that moment, I jumped down after it, for two reasons to kill it, and to bring up my small army to help with the fight that was about to start. As I was falling, I aimed my blade down to strike the beast down in one swift blow. The beast began roaring as loud as possible, in a futile attempt to stop me from falling onto it with my sword.   
The beasts roaring came to a sudden halt, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the waves viscously slamming into the sands and the wooden poles holding up the pier. I got off the dead beast, ripping my sword out of its back, pulling out a bit of the beast’s spine with one swift tug. As I pulled my sword out of its back, I noticed something, a green specter in the shape of the boar entering my sword. I had completely forgotten that Stygian Iron can absorb/seal the essence of monsters away in it. The beast’s body did not turn into gold dust.  
I then got off the dead boars back I immediately channeled every bit of my power into my sword and ring, only to stab my sword into the ground, creating a very large crevasse to form, as I look down the crevasse I see the underworld and about fifty skeletons climbing the earthen walls. The crevasse began to spew bits of fire and chunks of earth from its depths.  
Out of the corner of my eye I notice that the boar was getting up again and did not have its restraints, but that should be impossible, I killed it, unless Ares is reanimating it. I turn my head to see what it’s doing, but instead of a normal boar, it looked like it had been partially skinned and eaten and its body had been left out for a day or so. I looked at its face as it was now facing me head on, its eyes were now purple? I could have sworn they were red before; it then bowed its head toward me. I pulled my sword out of the ground as it slammed itself back together, I was ready to attack, my skeletons gathered behind me preparing themselves for the challenge before us. But the boar did not move, I felt a small tug in my gut and suddenly I could feel something, I could not feel anything from the skeletons or the boar but I could feel something from the people up above. I guess I killed the boar then. But now I was exhausted from summoning those skeletons, I could barely move, but I managed to fall down in the shady areas under the pier, and suddenly I got a jolt of energy, I was still tired but I could walk now.  
Then I heard a voice "You reanimated it when you were summoning the skeletons, now it will serve only you, it will not tire because the dead cannot tire." The voice sounded like dad but, younger.  
I looked up to see Ares watching from the edge of the pier, where I had jumped off, confused, I then did the only thing I could think of that would piss Ares off and conserve energy, I mounted the boar, leading my small army up the sandy dunes and back onto the pier. At this point Ares had left his spot on the pier and was now waiting at the entrance dressed in classic Greek armor with his sword and shield at the ready. I pointed my sword forward and my small army charged. The sound of swords clanging against each other filled the air, none of the skeletons were able to defeat Ares, but they could not die so it was a bit of a stalemate, obviously with Ares holding the upper hand but if he gave them a chance after they reassembled they would be swarming him. So he had to keep fighting. After a minute or so he got bored and decided to ignore the skeletons.   
"Boy are you not going to give me something to do?" He said while fighting off the last of the skeletons.  
I pointed my sword toward him, commanding the boar charge at its former master. The undead boar roared and charged forward. Ares obviously prepared for our attack, put his shield in front in an attempt to stop the beast, and it did the boar hit the shield and could not go any further but in doing so sending me over Ares and landing behind him, giving me the upper hand as he would now have to stop the boar, the skeletons and me.   
I swung my blade at his back, landing a direct hit on his back though it did not break the skin instead it just tore through his armor causing him to flinch as he felt the coldness of my blade on his back. He turned to me seemingly forgetting the boar behind him and began swinging at me wildly. I had forgotten how tired I was from the summoning and now I was paying the price, Ares swung at my arm cutting it open to see bone and then kicked me so hard in my chest that he cracked my ribs, and when I say that I mean all my ribs, I was sent flying to the ground not before he slashed at my neck but I was already falling to the ground so he ended up only slashing my cheek open, reveling my teeth to the world. I ended up landing in one of the huts that were on the pier that sold stuff.  
"Any last words punk" Ares asked smugly  
"Uh, yeah actually, don't you think I would make a pretty good zombie from like the walking dead or something? And also FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!" I responded while having blood freely flowing out of my mouth making my words sound like gargles.  
"HAHAHA you would to, to bad your about to die I kinda liked you."   
Then my boar appeared and headbutted Ares off the pier, I knew that it wouldn't keep him down for long and my skeletons began to reassemble again. I saw them surround the hut that I was in.   
I felt a tug at my gut again and I suddenly felt like I could walk again, but this time I was covered in debris and that meant that there were shadows under me. I felt another tug but a lot harder this time and my cheek felt weird like someone was stitching it back together without stiches and my arm slowly pull itself back together, but it still hurt like a bitch. My ribs felt like they weren't being dipped into the suns core anymore so that was better then before.  
"YOU LITTLE PUNK THINKING THAT WAS FUNNY?" A booming voice called out from bellow.  
Suddenly the wooden planks beneath me split in two and I fell to onto the sands once again, but this time without a fleshy boar to stop my fall so I ended up landing on the hard ground. I looked up to see Ares standing over me with his sword at my neck and foot on my chest.  
"NOW DO YOU HAVE ANY LAST WORDS?" He roared out furiously  
"O-one question. Ho-ow did you get the b-ol-t?" I manage to choke out   
I could feel the shadows wrapping around me, this time it wasn't me doing it, I began to heal slowly.   
"Wh-at do you mean?" He said obviously not expecting that question.   
"Well someone had to have stolen them and I know gods can't so how did you get your hands on them?"  
"I am the god of war" He started "I take orders from no one! And I certainly don't have dreams!" Ares responded, but something was wrong he started to stiffen up. And I took that opportunity, summoning as much energy as I could into knocking his foot off with my sword, unfortunately he managed to counter with his own sword shattering my sword's tip, I somehow managed to roll away further into the shadows. I don't have many options here so desperate time call for desperate measures.   
Then my backpack began to get heavy again, and I got an idea. I whipped out the master bolt and aimed it at Ares who was still somewhat in shock and threw with all the strength that I had left, knowing if this didn't do it then I was going to be visiting my father a bit earlier than expected.   
A massive BOOOOOMMMM could be heard drowning out any noise that had been their previously, making me go literally deaf. I looked over to where Ares was standing and saw he was unconscious before falling to the ground myself. I lay there for what seemed like hours, when I gathered up enough energy to look up I had the bolt and the helm in my hands and Annabeth and Grover standing over me looking very worried. I guess the lightning bolt strike woke them up.  
"Thank gods your alive Percy we need you to open your mouth, can you do that?" Annabeth asked  
I gather enough energy to open my mouth and she plops a piece of ambrosia and pored some nectar down my gullet. After a few minutes I found the strength to stand up. I looked around and somehow, I missed the giant boar waiting outside the docks. My army was nowhere to be seen though. I manage to gather some strength to give myself a boost in energy, as my body was already doing overtime, I needed just enough to get me to the train station.   
I heard the fluttering of wings, it was something big from the sounds of it, Annabeth got her knife out and Grover got his Pan Pipes out. I didn't have enough energy to use my sword properly even if it was broken. The boar didn't seem failed though. Instead of a winged monstrosity that we were expecting, we saw Alecto, the fury that picked me up and away from Tartarus. She simply looked at me and said nothing. I threw her the helm, she nodded and said one thing.  
"Get a solemn oath" And with that she was gone, and we were alone again.  
But before we could say anything to each other a flash of silver light blinded me and my companions.   
"Great two disabilities in one day, deaf and blindness, what's next? ADHD oh wait I already have that." I say clearly pissed off with whoever or whatever decided to blind me. I could feel the boar preparing itself for a fight.   
"Well, aren't you quite the comedian Perseus Jackson?" A voice, clearly female said.  
"If you’re going to kill me can we skip the whole monologue thing first? I don't think I could keep it up for much longer." I ask   
"Do not worry boy I am not here to kill you, in fact I am here to take you to Olympus." The voice said, my vision slowly returning, I can make out the shape of a girl about my age.  
"l-Lady Artemis, I-its an honor to fin-ally meet you" Grover stammered out   
My eyes widened at Grover's comment, I had just kinda insulted the man hating goddess.  
'I AM FUCKED, WHY DID I HAVE TO SAY THAT. ME AND MY STUPID MOUTH.'   
"Thank you, satyr, now we must be going. Young Annabeth and satyr I will take you back to camp and I will return for you boy." She said while walking forward and grabbing both Grover and Annabeth and turning back into light and disappearing. Thankfully, this time I was prepared so I closed my eyes just in time.  
After they left, I looked to my boar and told it to go back to camp and wait at my cabin.  
"Boar go to camp half blood and wait for me there." I said and it nodded and left in a sprint, I think it will take at least a week for it to get back there.   
After that I sat down and picked up what was left of my sword and started drawing to pass the time. I drew a skull and a tombstone, then I drew some random monsters that we encountered, I started with what I thought medusa would have looked like, then I moved on to a hellhound, and finally a echidna and chimera. After that I started drawing random things that popped into my head, first was the bolt and then I drew the helm and after that I drew the moon. I was so caught up drawing that I didn't even notice the goddess that had appeared behind me.  
"Come boy, Olympus waits for no-one" She said causing me to jump in surprise.   
"Uh, yeah sure let’s go." I said. She grabbed my shoulder and she began to glow a silver glow   
"You’re lucky, you know that boy?" Artemis said to me.  
"Yeah I know, I really did get lucky with the fight with Ares." I responded   
"I wasn't talking about that boy though I do agree you were lucky. I was talking about meeting me and living to tell the tale, not many boys see me and live to tell the tale." She said to me causing me to freeze in fear. She just laughed at me, I dare not to be a smart ass in any way shape or form around her as she could and probably would kill me. I had read enough myths to know what she does to men, well except that one guy who was a hunter, what was his name again... not Orion, oh well it doesn't matter.   
We suddenly appeared in a massive throne room with twelve gigantic thrones, a simple throne made out of solid platinum, with lightning designs on the sides, one made of ivory and adamantine with peacocks on it, a giant fishing chair with a fishing rod holder, one woven of apple-tree branches, wheat stalks, and dried grass, another was made of leather and chrome with large human skulls built into the arms, one silver with golden basket work on the back and sides, one looked like a huge mechanical La-Z-Boy type chair covered with bronze and silver gears, one so golden that it burnt my eyes to look at and radiated heat, another silver throne it has two date palms and two full moons above the top of the throne, one giant clam with precious gemstones on it, one made of gray rock with ram's heads on the arms and one throne made out of grape vines with a leopard pelt covering it.   
"PERSEUS JACKSON." A voice boomed

Authors notes: If your wondering why I haven't named Percy's sword yet there's good reason for that it will be reviled soonish? I know no-one ever asked but I'm going to tell all you aspiring fanfic writers out there my technique/method to writing: first sit down, second put some fucking vibing music on I usually put some lo-fi type shit or like somewhat classical and rap on and it just gets me in the mood, literally my last chapter was written coz I listened to Hallelujah from the Shrek soundtrack, I just had not heard the song in like a year or so and man I for whatever reason just sat down and wrote for like 6 hours. So like look though old music you used to listen to and just listen to them and maybe you'll get inspired so good luck.   
Also I am still conflicted on how I want the parings to go down just because I like a couple of the options but the one I want to go with is not super popular but they did decent on the polls and I also want to do a pretty popular one but I don't how it would work or how you guys would like it, a lot of people want to see Thalia and Percy which I don't mind doing but I'm not really that confident with writing romance, I just wanna see your opinions on the matter, so if you don't mind hearing possible spoilers, pm me :)  
Also DISNEY + BITCCCCCCHHEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS LETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRsOBFhNjVM Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh its a secret for everybody


	7. Just when you think you know a guy

Authors note: I don't own anything.  
"PERSEUS JACKSON" A voice boomed  
The air was crackling and smelled of ozone.   
The gods weren't moving or speaking, but there was tension in the air, as if they'd just finished an argument. Their eyes fixated on me watching my every move, I knelt, I know if I didn't I would most likely be blown to smithereens for disrespecting them.   
"RISE" The voice from before said, I assumed it was Zeus because it came from the centermost throne.   
"WE SHOULD SMITE YOU FOR USING MY BOLT BOY" Zeus' voice boomed   
"And risk destroying your own master bolt?" Poseidon asked calmly. "Let us hear him out, brother." 

Zeus grumbled. "I shall listen," he decided. "Then I shall make up my mind whether or not to smite him."   
"Now Perseus, why don't you explain to us why you have Zeus' master bolt." Poseidon requested   
So I told Zeus everything, just as it had happened including the dreams of the pit, they paled a bit after I told them about the dreams, Zeus and Poseidon turned to each other and began talking in ancient Greek, I only managed to catch one word, 'Father'. I took out the metal cylinder, which began sparking in the Sky God's presence, and held it out in front of me.   
"So, you expect us to believe that Ares betrayed us?" Zeus asked  
"Brother did you or did you not feel the master bolt being used and did you not send Artemis to check things out?"   
Zeus said nothing but looked to where his sons’ throne was, the only one empty.   
"Lord Zeus, I have been informed that you have my mother." I said staring directly into the sky gods’ electric blue eyes.  
"Yes, what of it boy?"   
"I propose a trade, the bolt for my mother."   
The gods became deadly silent they dare not make a sound. Zeus was in thought for a moment, then he looked directly into my eyes. "The deal is acceptable, I shall release her in a moment, now the bolt boy"   
"Not so fast, I was told to get a solemn oath and I will not barter with anything less." I respond with all the confidence that I could muster.  
A most of the gods were shocked at my request, I only recognized Dionysus and Artemis, Dionysus had a small smirk on his face and Artemis looked impassive.   
"YOU DARE DEMAND SUCH A THING BOY, I SHOULD SMITE YOU WHERE YOU STAND" Zeus roared  
"Brother calm down it is a reasonable request, the boy only wants his mother, he is not demanding anything outrageous." Poseidon said attempting to calm down his brother.  
"Fine have it your way boy. I Zeus, king of the gods promises to return Perseus Jacksons mother to him if he gives me my master bolt, I swear this apon the river Styx. Now your turn boy." Zeus demands   
I follow along the lines of what Zeus said, "I Perseus Jackson promise to give Zeus his master bolt back." I respond   
I place the bolt at the foot of his throne, the bolt lights up, becoming the embodiment of lightning itself as it fly's from the floor into Zeus' open hand. With a snap of his fingers, I was back in our apartment.  
"PERCY" Mom yells running up to me and tackling me into a hug   
"Hey Mom, I'm glad your back" I say while hugging her back and crying a bit.  
"Me too honey" She said as we hugged.   
She told me she'd just appeared at the apartment that just a moment ago, scaring Gabe half out of his wits. She didn't remember anything since the Minotaur and couldn't believe it when Gabe told her I was a wanted criminal, traveling across the country, blowing up national monuments. She'd been going out of her mind with worry all day because she hadn't heard the news. Gabe had forced her to go into work, saying she had a month's salary to make up and she'd better get started. I told her about the credit card that Dad gave me and handed it to her telling her that it would be better off with her.  
I swallowed back my anger and told her my own story. I tried to make it sound less scary than it had been, but that wasn't easy. I was just getting to the fight with Ares when Gabe's voice interrupted from the living room. "Hey, Sally! That meat loaf done yet or what?"   
In the month we'd been gone, the apartment had turned into Garbageland. Garbage was ankle deep on the carpet. The sofa had been repurposed for holding empty beer cans. Dirty socks and underwear hung off the lampshades. 

Gabe and three of his big goony friends were playing poker at the table. 

When Gabe saw me, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava. "You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police-"   
"Gabe, Percy didn't do anything. And I think you will find he was held hostage by a maniac." Mom said while pointing at the tv footage of me fighting Ares.

Gabe looked back and forth between us and the tv. He clearly didn't seem to think our homecoming was good. 

"Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally," he growled. "Get me the phone. I'll call the cops." 

"Gabe, no!" 

He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just say 'no'? You think I'm gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro." 

"But-" 

He raised his hand, and my mother flinched. For the first time, I realized something. Gabe had hit my mother. I didn't know when, or how much. But I was sure he'd done it. Maybe it had been going on for years, when I wasn't around. At this revelation I felt rage swelling in me, I released a small bit of my fathers aura from my ring and Gabe and his buddies immediately froze up looking like they had just shat themselves.   
"If you lay a hand on her, so help me I will kill you." I said with all the rage that I could muster. Gabe just nodded and sat down not talking anymore, he looked like he was about to pass out.  
My mother took my arm she looked affected by my aura of death. "Please, Percy. Come on. We'll go to your room." 

I let her pull me away, my hands still trembling with rage. 

My room had been filled with Gabe's junk. There was stacks of used car batteries, a rotting bouquet of sympathy flowers with a card from somebody who'd seen his Barbara Walters interview. 

"Gabe is just upset, honey," my mother told me. "I'll talk to him later. I'm sure it will work out." 

"Mom, it'll never work out. Not as long as Gabe's here." 

She wrung her hands nervously. "I'll take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there's another boarding school-" 

"Mom." 

She lowered her eyes. "I'm trying, Percy. I just, I need some time." 

A package appeared on my bed. At least, I could've sworn it hadn't been there a moment before.   
It was a battered cardboard box about the right size to fit a basketball. The address on the mailing slip was in my own handwriting: 

The Gods 

Mount Olympus 

600th Floor,   
Empire State Building 

New York, NY 

With best wishes, 

PERCY JACKSON 

Over the top in black marker, in a man's clear, bold print, was the address of our apartment, and the words: RETURN TO SENDER.   
I look to my mother. "Mom, do you want Gabe gone? 

"Percy, it isn't that simple. I-" 

"Mom, just tell me. That jerk has been hitting you. Do you want him gone or not?" 

She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "Yes, Percy. I do. And I'm trying to get up my courage to tell him. But you can't do this for me. You can't solve my problems."  
I smirked and turned to my mother. "I think I figured out the solution to our problems"   
I take the head out of the crude wrapping and tell he to close her eyes and keep them shut no matter what. I walk out holding the severed head. "HEY GABE CHECK THIS OUT!"   
He looks toward me, his eyes turning wide then stone slowly begins to coat his walrus like body, same goes for all his friends they all end up stone statues playing a game of poker. I recon this would make a pretty good gift to dad or something.  
I could hear their trapped souls screaming at me to let them free, I just smiled at the thought of Gabe groveling at my feet asking to be freed.   
I then close my eyes and feel Medusas face, feeling for the eyes when I found them I pulled the eyelids down but I didn't really trust it so I pulled my shirt off and wrapped the head in that. Just in case...   
I returned to mom who was still sitting on the bed still just as confused as the moment I left her. I quickly put medusas head in the wrapping and sticky taped it closed.   
"You can open your eyes now mom." I tell her. She opens her eyes seeing me topless.  
"Percy why are you topless? And how did you deal with Gabe?"   
"Just check the living room mom"   
She nods still confused, then she makes it to the living room and all that could be heard was a loud gasp.   
"Perseus Jackson what did you do?" She demanded  
"I just showed them Medusa. They got what they deserved" I said looking at her in the eyes.  
"Percy thank you but I could have dealt with it"   
"I know mom I just think that you shouldn't have to deal with scum like that."  
"Thank you sweetie" She responds.   
"Mom I've been thinking..." I start knowing that we both wouldn't like where this is going. "I think I should return to camp; I think I'm too dangerous to be around monster wise."  
Mom was trying to hold back her tears. "How long are you going to stay there?' She barely made it through the sentence without breaking into tears.  
"I-i don't know mom, maybe half year, maybe full year, it depends..."   
KING CRIMSON x 360  
AKA TIME SKIP 1 HOUR  
We were the first heroes to return alive to Half-Blood Hill since Luke, so of course everybody treated us as if we'd won some reality TV show. According to camp tradition, we wore laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in our honor, then led a procession down to the bonfire, where we got to burn the burial shrouds our cabins had made for us in our absence. 

Annabeth's shroud was so beautiful-gray silk with embroidered owls. I told her it seemed a shame not to bury her in it. She punched me and told me to shut up. 

Being the son of Hades, I didn't have any cabin mates, so the Apollo cabin had volunteered to make my shroud. They'd gotten black silk and embroidered a big skull with green fire coming from the eye sockets, with gemstones embroidered around the border obviously it wasn't the best looking thing because they're Apollo's kids and they don't know how to embroider but it was the thought that counts.   
The Ares cabin was furious with me that I had killed their dad's sacred boar and made it my pet. Chiron was skeptical at first to let it in then I explained it wouldn't do anything without my permission as I held its soul. After a bit of back and forth the boar, now named Blasphemy could stay under the condition that he stays in my cabin. Apparently, Dad was feeling cool and summoned a big stable made of bones connecting it to my cabin. I also figured out how to get him to talk, though he wasn't one for talking but he was pretty cool neither the less.  
I almost didn't want to burn it but then again it would be fun to burn something.   
As Apollo's cabin led the sing along and passed out s'mores, I was sitting alone until Michael came up to me and apologized for being a bad friend and ignoring me, we made up and enjoyed the sing along, Annabeth was with her siblings from the Athena cabin, and Grover's satyr buddies, who were admiring the brand new searcher's license he'd received from the Council of Cloven Elders. The council had called Grover's performance on the quest "Brave to the point of indigestion. Horns-and-whiskers above anything we have seen in the past." 

During the sing along I noticed a girl about eight tending to the flames, didn't seem to have anyone to talk to so I excused myself from Michael and headed over to give her some company. But by the time I got over there she was nowhere to be seen.  
I moved back into cabin thirteen, but it didn't feel as lonely as before. I had my few friends to train with during the day. At night, I laid awake, listening to the fire crackle, knowing my father was out there. I can only hope he's proud of me.   
The next day I went to the Hephaestus cabin to get my sword repaired, a kid named Charles Beckendorf answered, he was the counsellor for the Hephaestus cabin. I told him what happened with Ares and he just nodded telling me to come in and he took me down to the forges under the cabin itself. I have to admit it was sick the place was decked out with cool stuff, machines and weapons strewn over the place and it had an underground area, that was just sick.   
"Alright here's the deal Jackson, we can't touch the blade without being put in danger so you’re going to have to repair it because only children of the underworld can safely touch Stygian Iron without getting their soul ripped from their bodies." Beckendorf said  
I nodded and followed the instructions that he gave me, first I had to make a cast of the blade and how I wanted it extended. Then I heated the blade, I chucked it into a furnace and waited a good hour to even get the blade up to proper temperatures, then put it into the cast and poured titanium into the cast so it would be proper size and all, then Beckendorf explained that I had to somehow cool the blade in the river Styx and if I wanted to make it even more powerful then I would have to put my essence into it aka cut myself before I put it in the river which could kill me. Then it hit me I could fucking teleport. I closed my eyes and thought of the place that I wanted to be the most, on the riverbeds where we first landed when getting to the underworld, I felt the world around me go cold and when I opened my eyes I was in front of the river I quickly cut myself on the palm of my hand with the still extremely hot blade, now I knew what Clarisse felt it was indescribably painful, I quickly dunked the sword in, careful to not get splashed by the river or to put my hand in, after about a minute the sword glowed purple and I pulled it out and it looked wicked, the titanium was partially damaged from the river but that just gave it a serrated edge, it gave off a black glow as if it was sucking the light from around us into it, I could literally feel my own power radiating off this sword.   
I decided to ask dad if he could help out and teleported into the court yard of the palace, making my way through the halls and knocking on the main door, receiving a response from dad to enter, we exchanged greetings.   
"Hey dad can you help with this" I said while pointing to my hand before promptly passing out.   
I awoke to the sound of a woman yelling, it seemed familiar, but I had never heard it before. I groggily got up and the yelling stopped, I looked up to see a tall young woman with a beautiful but deathly pale face. Her hair was dark and long, floating and curling as if it were weightless. Her eyes were multicolored but washed out, as if the Underworld had sapped her life force.   
She seemed pissed, once she realized I was up she just stomped off. I looked down at my hand to see it was all healed up.  
"Who was that?" I asked although I think I already knew the answer to that question.  
"Your stepmother, Persephone, she's not to pleased that your alive... But hopefully you two can form some kind of bond" My father said in a hopeful tone.  
"Yeah hopefully..." I respond, "Anyways I gotta get back to camp, also how long was I out?"  
"Only an hour or so. And are you sure you don't want to stay?" He said in a wishful tone  
"I can't sorry I really gotta get back I still need to get my sword fixed up just the final adjustments you know?"   
"Are you sure you don't want to stay another thirty minutes? I could give you some special gold to give to the Hephaestus kids as a payment?" He said enticingly  
I hadn't really thought about payment, I didn't have my card on me or many Drachmas, so I didn't have anything for them unless they wanted green fire which I doubted. So I decided to stay and as time passed I was having such a good time with Dad I didn't even realize what time it was I asked dad to send the metal up and I quickly said my goodbyes and headed out.  
By the time I had returned the Hephaestus cabin was in the middle of making me a shroud, honestly, I was really amused and explained the situation and were just ok with it. I told them that there payment was outside, I told them it was some kind of godly metal and we went outside to pick it up, there was this large chunk of gold about 5 by 5 (feet) but apparently they couldn't physically lift it, so I gave it a go and I easily picked it up, and as soon as I did I learned the metals name. Imperial Gold. I quickly brought the gold in and put it on one of the tables, I made one of the Hephaestus kids pick it up and it worked this time and they took it to some storage area. Then we got my new sword cleaned up. I marveled at the work that I did to it and decided to name the sword.   
"It shall be called Palingenesis or rebirth" I state while holding rebirth to my face.  
I turn it back into a ring and notice that it has a silver rim, and it’s got the ancient Greek word 'Palingenesis' engraved on the inside of the ring.  
Time skip   
On the Fourth of July, the whole camp gathered at the beach for a firework display by cabin nine. Being Hephaestus's kids, they weren't going to settle for a few lame red-white-and-blue explosions. They'd anchored a barge offshore and loaded it with rockets the size of Patriot missiles. According to Annabeth, who'd seen the show before, the blasts would be sequenced so tightly they'd look like frames of animation across the sky. The finale was supposed to be a couple of hundred-foot-tall Spartan warriors who would crackle to life above the ocean, fight a battle, then explode into a million colors. 

As Annabeth, Michael and I were setting up a picnic, Grover showed up to tell us good-bye. He was dressed in his usual jeans and T-shirt and sneakers, but in the last few weeks he'd started to look older, almost high-school age. His goatee had gotten thicker. He'd put on weight. His horns had grown at least an inch, so he now had to wear his rasta cap all the time to pass as human. 

"I'm off," he said. "I just came to say ... well, you know."   
"Goodbye man and good luck, god knows you'll need it." I say to him  
Annabeth and Michael both give a hug and say goodbye. He gripped his walking stick and slung a backpack over his shoulder. He looked like any hitchhiker you might see on an American highway-nothing like the little runty boy I used to defend from bullies at Yancy Academy.   
Fireworks exploded to life overhead: Hercules killing the Nemean lion, Artemis chasing the boar, George Washington (who was a son of Athena) crossing the Delaware.   
July passed.   
I spent my days devising new strategies for capture-the-flag and making alliances with the other cabins to keep the banner out of Ares's hands. I got to the top of the climbing wall for the first time without getting scorched by lava. Heck I even made a friend out of Katie Gardener, the Demeter cabin counselors, we made friends when she tried to teach me how to take care of the strawberries at camp, which I was accidentally killing with my aura. She helped me get it under control and we have been friends ever since. I even started to talk to Mr D, he was pretty cool, he seems to like me because of my half-brother, Zagreus they used to be drinking buddies when Dionysius was allowed to drink ever since ancient times, they grew so close together that mortals started thinking that they were the same being, which they thought was pretty funny, but since Mr D has been stuck at camp for the past 50 or so years they haven't really seen much of each other, I told him I would tell him to visit if I ever saw him in the underworld. Which Mr D really seemed to apricate. 

From time to time, I'd walk past the Big House, glance up at the attic windows, and think about the Oracle. I tried to convince myself that its prophecy had come to completion. 

You shall go west and face the god who has turned. 

Been there, done that-even though the traitor god had turned out to be Ares. 

You shall find what was stolen and see it safe returned. 

Check. One master bolt delivered. One helm of darkness back on Dads head.

And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.   
Maybe it was just a dud line?   
So why was I still uneasy?  
The words of the prophecy rang through my head. You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend...  
The last night of the summer session came all too quickly. 

The campers had one last meal together. We burned part of our dinner for the gods. At the bonfire, the senior counselors awarded the end-of-summer beads. 

I got my own leather necklace, and when I saw the bead for my first summer, I was glad the firelight covered my blushing. The design was pitch black, with a bright white helm, representing Hades, shimmering in the center. 

"The choice was unanimous," Luke announced. "This bead commemorates the first Son of Underworld God at this camp, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!" 

The entire camp got to their feet and cheered. Even Ares's cabin felt obliged to stand. Athena's cabin steered Annabeth to the front so she could share in the applause. 

I'm not sure I'd ever felt as happy or sad as I did at that moment. I'd finally found a family, people who cared about me and thought I'd done something right. And in the morning, most of them would be leaving for the year...  
The next morning, I found a form letter on my bedside table. 

Dear______ Percy Jackson_______ , 

If you intend to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, you must inform the Big House by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabin or died a horrible death. Cleaning harpies will begin work at sundown. They will be authorized to eat any unregistered campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit. 

Have a nice day! 

Mr. D (Dionysus) 

Camp Director, Olympian Council #12   
The decision should have been easy. I mean, nine months of hero training or nine months of sitting in a classroom-duh. 

But there was my mom to consider. For the first time, I had the chance to live with her for a whole year, without Gabe. I had a chance be at home and knock around the city in my free time. I remembered what Annabeth had said so long ago on our quest: The real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not. 

I thought about the fate of Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I wondered how many monsters would attack me if I left Half-Blood Hill. If I stayed in one place for a whole school year, without Chiron or my friends around to help me, would my mother and I even survive until the next summer? I decided I'd go down to the arena and do some sword practice. Maybe that would clear my head. 

The campgrounds were mostly deserted, shimmering in the August heat. All the campers were in their cabins packing up, or running around with brooms and mops, getting ready for final inspection. Argus was helping some of the Aphrodite kids haul their Gucci suitcases and makeup kits over the hill, where the camp's shuttle bus would be waiting to take them to the airport.

I got to the sword-fighters arena and found that Luke had had the same idea. His gym bag was plopped at the edge of the stage. He was working solo, destroying battle dummies with a sword I'd never seen before. It must've been a regular steel blade or something because he was slashing the dummies' heads right off, stabbing through their straw-stuffed guts. His orange counselor's shirt was dripping with sweat. His expression was so intense, his life might've really been in danger. I watched, fascinated, as he disemboweled the whole row of dummies, hacking off limbs and basically reducing them to a pile of straw and armor. 

They were only dummies, but I still couldn't help being awed by Luke's skill. The guy was an incredible fighter. The quest that he was given must have been impossible if he failed at it. 

Finally, he saw me, and stopped mid-swing. "Percy. Just getting some last-minute practice. in" 

"Those dummies won't be bothering anybody anymore." I respond  
He laughed at that "Hahaha yeah I suppose your right"  
"Cool sword, is it new?"   
"Yeah its called Backbiter, because all the coolest swords have names."   
"Damn straight" I respond  
He gave me a smile, then slid the sword into its scabbard. "Listen, I was going to come looking for you. What do you say we go down to the woods one last time, look for something to fight?" 

I don't know why I hesitated. I should've felt relieved that Luke was being so friendly. Ever since I'd gotten back from the quest, he'd been acting a little distant. 

"You think it's a good idea?" I asked. "I mean-" 

"Aw, come on." He rummaged in his gym bag and pulled out a six-pack of Cokes. "Drinks are on me." 

I stared at the Cokes, wondering where the heck he'd gotten them. There were no regular mortal sodas at the camp store. No way to smuggle them in unless you talked to a satyr, maybe.   
"Alright, you convinced me, let’s go" I said as we began our journey to the center of the forest.  
We walked down to the woods and kicked around for some kind of monster to fight, but it was too hot. All the monsters with any sense must've been taking a break in their nice cool caves. 

We found a shady spot by the creek where I'd broken Clarisse's spear during my first capture the flag game. We sat on a big rock, drank our Cokes, and watched the sunlight in the woods. 

After a while Luke said, "You miss being on a quest?" 

"With monsters attacking me every three feet? Are you kidding?" 

Luke raised an eyebrow.   
"No, I'm being honest it’s so much nicer in here not worrying about where your gonna sleep or where your next meal will be" I tell him  
"I suppose your right on that bit, but don't you miss the freedom that you were given?"   
"I mean I guess having Maccas whenever you wanted wasn't half bad. How bout yourself?"  
A shadow passed over his face. 

I was used to hearing from the girls how good-looking Luke was, but now, he looked weary, and angry, and not at all handsome. His blond hair was gray in the sunlight. The scar on his face looked deeper than usual. I could imagine him as an old man. 

"I've lived at Half-Blood Hill year-round since I was fourteen," he told me. "Ever since Thalia ... well, you know. I trained, and trained, and trained. I never got to be a normal teenager, out there in the real world. Then they threw me one quest, and when I came back, it was like, 'Okay, ride's over. Have a nice life.'"  
He crumpled his Coke can and threw into the creek, which really shocked me. One of the first things you learn at Camp Half-Blood is: Don't litter. You'll hear from the nymphs and the naiads. They'll get even. You'll crawl into bed one night and find your sheets filled with centipedes and mud. 

"To Hades with laurel wreaths," Luke said. "I'm not going to end up like those dusty trophies in the Big House attic." 

"You sound like you're leaving." 

Luke gave me a twisted smile. "Oh, I'm leaving, all right, Percy. I brought you down here to say goodbye." 

He snapped his fingers. A small fire burned a hole in the ground at my feet. Out crawled something glistening black, about the size of my hand. A scorpion.  
I immediately got Rebirth out. And prepared for the worst.  
"Ooh look at you, new sword and everything, is that titanium? How did you manage that? You would have had to make it yourself because only children of the underworld can touch Stygian Iron." Luke mocked/asked  
"I wouldn't unless your super confident," Luke cautioned. "Pit scorpions can jump up to fifteen feet. Its stinger can pierce right through your clothes. You'll be dead in sixty seconds."   
"Luke, what-"   
Then it hit me. 

You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend. 

"You," I said. 

He stood calmly and brushed off his jeans. I release my aura of death; he seems a bit shaken up from that but ultimately just shrugged it off. 

The scorpion paid him and my aura no attention. It kept its beady black eyes on me, clamping its pincers as it crawled onto my shoe.   
I stab down at it as it jumps up, I manage to slice it in half but before it turns to dust it manages to scrape me with its stinger. I fall to the ground in pain  
"You're as crazy as Ares." I spit at him   
His eyes flared. "Ares is a fool. He never realized the true master he was serving. If I had time, Percy, I could explain. But I'm afraid you won't live that long."   
I couldn't do anything here I was immobilized from the poison and Luke was just walking away.  
"Kronos," I said. "That's who you serve." 

The air got colder. 

"You should be careful with names," Luke warned before he disappeared into the darkness  
I focused all my energy into teleporting out of there suddenly I was at the edge of camp, my legs felt like lead. My forehead was burning. I stumbled toward the camp, and the nymphs stirred from their trees. 

"Help," I croaked. "Please"

Two of them took my arms, pulling me along. I remember making it to the clearing, a counselor shouting for help, a centaur blowing a conch horn. 

Then everything went black.   
I woke with a drinking straw in my mouth. I was sipping something that tasted like liquid chocolate-chip cookies. Nectar. 

I opened my eyes. 

I was propped up in bed in the sickroom of the Big House, my right hand bandaged like a club. Argus stood guard in the corner. Annabeth sat next to me, holding my nectar glass, and dabbing a washcloth on my forehead. 

"Here we are again," I said. 

"You idiot," Annabeth said, which is how I knew she was overjoyed to see me conscious. "You were green and turning gray when we found you. If it weren't for Chiron's healing . . ."  
"Now, now you must give the boy credit, he didn't get any healing before he was found and somehow, he managed to travel from the forest to the camp border all the while being poisoned" Chiron said  
"How are you feeling?" he asked. 

"Like my insides have been frozen, then microwaved."   
He snorted at my description "It sounds like a punishment your father would think of, does it not? Now can you tell me the story."   
Between sips of nectar, I told them the story. 

The room was quiet for a long time. 

"I can't believe that Luke ..." Annabeth's voice faltered. Her expression turned angry and sad. "Yes. Yes, I can believe it. May the gods curse him.... He was never the same after his quest." 

"This must be reported to Olympus," Chiron murmured. "I will go at once."  
"He’s still out there so be safe Chiron." I warn   
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Chiron promised. "Argus will watch over you." 

He glanced at Annabeth. "Oh, and my dear, whenever you're ready, they're here." 

"Who's here?" I asked. 

Nobody answered. 

Chiron rolled himself out of the room. I heard the wheels of his chair clunk carefully down the front steps, two at a time. 

Annabeth studied the ice in my drink. 

"What's wrong?" I asked her. 

"Nothing." She set the glass on the table. "I just decided enough was enough. You ... um ... need anything?" 

"Yeah. Help me up. I want to go outside." 

"Percy, that isn't a good idea." 

I slid my legs out of bed. I crumple to the floor. A wave of nausea rolled over me. 

Annabeth said, "I told you ..."   
"Shut up and help me up please"   
We make it outside and I see my boar waiting for me patiently sitting like a dog. Annabeth helps prop me up on it and we make our way slowly to the top of half-blood hill.  
It was dusk. The camp looked completely deserted. The cabins were dark and the volleyball pit silent. No canoes cut the surface of the lake. Beyond the woods and the strawberry fields, the Long Island Sound glittered in the last light of the sun.   
"What are you going to do?" Annabeth asked me. 

"I don't know." 

I told her I got the feeling Chiron wanted me to stay year-round, to put in more individual training time, but I wasn't sure that's what I wanted. I admitted I'd feel bad about leaving her alone, though, with only Clarisse for company.... 

Annabeth pursed her lips, then said quietly, "I'm going home for the year, Percy." 

I stared at her. "You mean, to your dad's?" 

She pointed toward the crest of Half-Blood Hill. Next to Thalia's pine tree, at the very edge of the camp's magical boundaries, a family stood silhouetted-two little children, a woman, and a tall man with blond hair. They seemed to be waiting. The man was holding a backpack that looked like the one Annabeth had gotten from Waterland in Denver.   
"Then I guess I'll be going back; I mean all my friends are leaving or have left already so I think I should go too." I tell her  
She pursed her lips. "You won't try anything stupid during the school year, will you? At least ... not without sending me an Iris-message?" 

I managed a smile. "I won't go looking for trouble. I usually don't have to." 

"When I get back next summer," she said, "we'll hunt down Luke. We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?" 

"Sounds like a plan worthy of Athena." 

She held out her hand. I shook it. 

"Take care, Corpse Groom," Annabeth told me. "Keep your eyes open." 

"You too, Wise Girl." 

I watched her walk up the hill and join her family. She gave her father an awkward hug and looked back at the valley one last time. She touched Thalia's pine tree, then allowed herself to be led over the crest and into the mortal world.

Once again, I felt truly alone at camp.

Authors note: Hi hoped you enjoyed this shorter chapter, just gonna say it now I have no fucking clue how to make/repair a sword so sorry if it seems unrealistic. Also I thought that it was going to be hella short but it turned out to be pretty decent, at first I thought It was going to be about 4k words but it turned out closer to 6.5k as Eddy Burback would say yikes  
Also, shoutout to JOJO JESUS for the name of the boar: Blasphemy.


End file.
